Singapore—Can Singaporeans finally breathe a sigh of relief?
Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight after all.
The number of new local infections decreased this week in comparison to the previous one for the first time since the middle of October.
Bloomberg underlined the significance of this in a Nov 4 article, pointing our that this is an important milestone that may lead to more moves toward reopening.
Authorities have been tracking the country’s week-over-week trajectory of cases to determine the weekly infection growth ratio, upon which decisions to ease restrictions are based.
The goal is to get the ratio below 1.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-leads the Multi-Ministry Task Force dealing with the pandemic, said that when this ratio is consistently lower than 1, this could mean the next steps in easing pandemic restrictions.
On Wednesday (Nov 3), the Ministry of Health posted this significant update.
“The ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before has fallen below 1 to 0.96,” MOH wrote.
Update on COVID-19 situation (3 Nov 2021):
The ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before has fallen below 1 to 0.96.
For full details: https://t.co/wslYFJQO0O pic.twitter.com/y8lVYRnGRm
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) November 3, 2021
Just as significant is that on that day, 3,635 new infections were recorded, in comparison to the week before, when over 5,000 new cases were recorded. MOH called it an “unusual surge in cases within a relatively short window” and said it would be “closely monitoring the trends for the next few days.”
In it’s latest update on Nov 4, MOH reported 3,003 new Covid-19 cases.
This means that the ratio went down to 0.93 for Nov 4, the second day that it stands lower than 1.
On Oct 15, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that despite others’ opinions of the “flip-flop” approach the government has taken in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, it was the “correct” approach for the country.
“Some may feel that this middle-of-the-road approach is unclear, and may even appear to be a ‘flip-flop’. But it has helped us avert the massive deaths that many countries have suffered from,” the Straits Times reported Mr Ong as saying at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Asia-Pacific Conference.
“It is the correct approach for Singapore and, day by day, we are moving closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.” /TISG