Singapore—Experts say that the number of coronavirus cases may reach between 30,000 and 40,000 this month. However, the measures that have taken toward containment are helping in keeping these infections in check.
The number of infections have begun to stablilise of late, despite the total number of cases rising, said the vice-dean of research at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Associate Professor Alex Cook.
The straitstimes.com (ST) quotes Dr Cook as saying, “This is what we’d see if we were successfully flattening the curve – case counts rising but in a more controlled manner.”
In the past 13 days, the number of new confirmed cases have been below 1,000, which is seen as a good sign that the overall numbers are tapering. The highest number of infections Singapore saw in a 24-hour period was 1,426, which occurred on April 20.
The professor added, “The models say the epidemic should be growing ever higher but the data is instead stabilising… It still seems possible that we’ll hit 30,000 or 40,000 infections this month, but perversely that would be a success compared to an unmitigated epidemic growth scenario.”
Another expert also said that the total number of cases in Singapore could reach 40,000 this month and that it’s probable that the country is now past its peak.
An infectious disease expert at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Dr Leong Hoe Nam, is quoted in ST as saying, “The number of 500 to 800 which we see every day represents the cases that were infected earlier.”
Moreover, the daily number of cases is likely to remain the same, with some fluctuations possible, Dr Leong said.
Another expert, NUS’ Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Professor Paul Tambyah weighed in, saying that coronavirus cases among migrant workers in and out of dormitories can be managed by contact tracing, isolation, quarantine, and monitoring.
“With that in place, there is a good chance that (daily community cases) will go down to zero like they did in February. In fact, the same approach on a much larger scale is also likely to work in the dorms,” Dr Tambyah said, adding that the coming easing of restrictions on Tuesday (May 12), such as the opening of hair salons and barbershops, would have an impact on the number of cases.
Over 85 percent of all active cases of Covid-19 are found among migrant workers residing in dormitories. To date, Singapore has had 20,198 coronavirus cases. There are 1,634 people who have recovered and have been discharged from hospital, while 20 people have died since the first person was confirmed positive for Covid-19 in Singapore on January 23. —/TISG
Read also: Daily brief: Covid-19 update for May 7, 2020