More monitoring needed to decide if S’pore needs another circuit breaker: Ong Ye Kung

Singapore – Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Sunday (May 16) that further monitoring of the Covid-19 situation in Singapore is needed before deciding if another circuit breaker is required.

At a virtual media conference held by the multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) on Covid-19 on Sunday, Mr Ong was asked why the authorities did not implement another circuit breaker amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases within the community.

“This is a particularly difficult time to answer that question because you can see the cases rising, and whether the trajectory goes exponentially or flattens…which direction it goes, we will only know in the coming days,” said Mr Ong.

He noted that it was only the first day of Phase 2, a state of heightened alert, with stricter rules, including a ban on dining out.

Mr Ong pointed out that by “removing the most risky setting, we will make an impact”. There will be an impact, he said, with people not allowed to dine at food and beverage establishments and a decline in general activity with work from home and home-based learning being the norm for now.

With students switching to home-based learning from Wednesday (May 19), “activity will be reduced even more”, he said.

“We know there will be an impact, and I think we will only know in the coming days,” said Mr Ong.

A total of 38 community cases were reported on Sunday, 20 of them linked to previous cases, and 18 currently unlinked, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily Covid-19 updates. The 11 others were imported cases,  already placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 39 in the week before to 131 last week. The number of unlinked cases has also increased from six to 32 last week.

Meanwhile, MOH continues to study the severity of the virus among those who contracted Covid-19 after vaccination and those infected by someone who had been already inoculated.

Mr Ong stressed that when the time is right, “we will make the right decisions”.

“And if it has to come to more stringent measures, as (Finance Minister Lawrence Wong) has said in the last (MTF press conference), we will do so. And if it is a (circuit breaker), we will say it is a (circuit breaker).” /TISG

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