Singapore — Speaking at the multi-ministry task force press conference on Monday (Nov 15), Finance Minister Lawrence Wong acknowledged the difficulty people have with the many changes and adjustments in pandemic measures.
Mr Wong co-chairs the task force with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong and has largely been the public face of the Government’s response to the Covid pandemic since it began in early 2020.
He said that the authorities have tried to prevent having a “start-stop” approach when it comes to the country’s reopening.
”We understand that it is not always easy for people to keep track of the changes in our measures, and from time to time it also creates frustration because of the perceived flip-flops in our Covid-19 strategy,” Mr Wong said on Monday.
“That’s why we are trying very hard to avoid start-stops in our measures, and to minimise the need to throttle back or to tighten. But I hope everyone understands it is very challenging to do this,” The Straits Times reports him as saying.
He was clarifying to members of the press why the Government has chosen a “controlled, careful and calibrated” manner in relaxing pandemic measures, saying that after changes are announced, the MTF watches the situation closely in the days and weeks that follow, and the next adjustments are only made when the overall infection situation stabilises.
Mr Wong also mentioned that other countries are experiencing the same problems that Singapore is now facing, including countries in Europe such as Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands, where an increase in infections have been observed after their economies were opened up.
“The point is, countries everywhere have to deal with these adjustments throughout the pandemic,” he added, and this includes countries that have high vaccination rates.
For these countries, waves of infection are causing the authorities to adjust their measures in order to ensure that the healthcare system is prevented from getting overwhelmed.
“And we have to keep on doing that until we reach a stabler equilibrium with the virus. This is the common challenge that countries everywhere are dealing with,” added Mr Wong.
With the most recent round of announcements, as many as five fully vaccinated people from the same household are allowed to dine-in at hawker centres once access control and checking systems have been implemented. /TISG
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