Singapore — Commenting on the news that a 79-year-old unvaccinated man had succumbed to Covid-19, former Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng wrote, “This is going to be the future for the world.”
Mr Cheng made his comment on the Facebook account of The Straits Times linking to the report that the 79-year-old Singaporean man’s death means 40 people in the country have died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic early last year.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in an update dated Aug 5 (Thursday) that the man had died of complications due to Covid-19 the day before. He had been admitted at Sengkang General Hospital on Aug 4 for shortness of breath and low blood pressure and was confirmed positive for the infection also on that day.
“He had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, and had a history of heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension,” MOH added.
Notably, three people in Singapore have died from Covid-19 in four days—the unvaccinated senior, a 58-year-old woman who was also unvaccinated died on Aug 2, and a 34-year-old crewman from Ukraine who arrived in Singapore on Jul 28 on a ship, died on Aug 1.
Mr Cheng’s full comment was, “This is going to be the future for the world. No country can stay locked down and with closed borders for long. Some of the unvaccinated will succumb and die. Just like any other disease.”
Other commenters seemed to agree on the risk of remaining unvaccinated, especially given that the Delta variant of the virus has a much higher transmissibility rate.
The other point Mr Cheng was apparently making was to urge Singapore to open for the sake of the economy. Like many countries, Singapore had a zero-Covid policy at the beginning of the pandemic, which has changed with the realisation that Covid infections will become endemic, and that vaccinations will prevent serious disease and death.
But this was not the only ST article that Mr Cheng commented on recently. In a report entitled “Travellers from Taiwan need not serve SHN from Aug 7 if they test negative for Covid-19 on arrival: MOH,” Mr Cheng also left a comment reiterating his view that Singapore needs to open its borders.
“We have to open to more vaccinated people,” he wrote.
On Thursday, MOH also said that from 11.59 pm on Saturday (Aug 7), people travelling to Singapore from Taiwan will no longer have to serve the 14-day stay-home notice (SHN) if their swab tests are negative when they arrive.
/TISG
Read also: Calvin Cheng: Unvaccinated people aren’t being discriminated against
Calvin Cheng: Unvaccinated people aren’t being discriminated against