At a visit to a mobile vaccination centre in Nee Soon Central on Monday (June 27), Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that tighter safe management measures are not needed at the moment, despite growing Covid-19 cases and the expectation of even higher numbers.

Mr Lawrence Wong also announced that every household in Singapore will receive 10 antigen rapid test kits (ARTs). He also said that the rise in Covid-19 infections in Singapore is due to the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants.

On June 21, the Ministry of Health said that the percentage of Covid infections due to the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants had risen last week to 30 per cent, although the majority of the country’s cases are due to the BA.2 sub-variant.

“The surge in BA.4 and BA.5 cases is likely to continue, driven by their higher transmissibility compared to BA.2,” the ministry added.

On June 27, DPM Lawrence Wong said, “We should expect cases to continue to rise.”

Lawrence Wong assured, however, that the country should be able to “ride through this wave” even without additional safe management measures, although he said a close eye would be kept on the number of infections.

“This includes the infection trajectory over the coming weeks, severity, as well as our hospital situation. And if need be, we will have to make adjustments.

For now, we think we don’t need any tightening of measures, we do not have to tap on the brakes.

But as we all know, it’s always a highly fluid and dynamic situation,” The Straits Times quotes DPM as saying.

By and large, netizens appeared to cheer the need for no additional restrictions, with some expressing the hope that these will not be necessary, especially if people continue to take personal responsibility.