Ho Ching: Omicron! It’s coming. It’s just a matter of time.

Singapore —  Madam Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former CEO of Temasek Holdings, highlighted in a Nov 27 Facebook post that it will be only a matter of time before it pushes Delta off the pedestal to become the dominant variant globally. She was referring to the new COVID-10 variant, Omicron.

She noted that since it is already detected in HK, Belgium, Netherlands, and outside Africa, it may not be possible to stop the spread to Singapore.

“We can slow, but not stop it.”

“So vaccinate.”

She also stated that while vaccination may not fully protect against being infected, vaccination has a high chance of preventing severe or fatal infection.

She reminded everyone to vaccinate our pregnant mums, our young wives planning to have babies, our seniors, our immunocompromised, and our young people who are yet to be vaccinated.

This post elicited a range of reactions from netizens, with some concurring and others disagreeing.

In the comment section of her post, one netizen raised a query about the vaccine’s efficiency against the new strain, citing early reports that it may be able to defeat the vaccine.

Closing the border, transmission control, and vaccination are critical, according to one of the comments.

Still, another netizen quoted that even if we close the border, it will come to Singapore based on the experience with different variants.

Another netizen even questioned whether this new variant would make boosters mandatory or even protect us and serve as an excuse for parents to vaccinate their children.

Many netizens are sceptical about the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the new variant. One netizen advocated for the development of a new vaccine.

Madam Ho Ching emphasized that do not neglect the safety precautions like masking, hand sanitizing, safe spacing, and reduced diversity and frequency of contacts.

She added, “Stay safe, keep calm, and let’s work through this new curveball that COVID has thrown at us.”

Madam Ho Ching has consistently tracked Singapore’s progress through the pandemic. /TISG