Singapore — Countries around the globe have been watching Singapore closely as the country takes steps toward reopening after achieving one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
However, the mood in Singapore has grown more tensed as the number of Covid infections has spiked recently, reaching over 1,000 a day several times this week.
A Sept 22 article in The Telegraph quotes Health Minister Ong Ye Kung as saying that the rise in cases should be perceived as a “rite of passage” for any nation in a similar place of transition.
Mr Ong has characterised this as “a journey that is uncertain and full of twists and turns,” on Friday (Sept 17) when talking to members of the media at a virtual press conference.
And while he has also warned that the next two weeks are “critical” in making sure that hospitals are not overwhelmed, he also said that had Singapore not reached such a high vaccination rate, even more deaths would have occurred.
The country’s fatality rate now stands at 65, one of the lowest in the world.
The Telegraph added that Singapore’s “situation mirrors soaring cases in Israel, which has also had one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in the world, and it highlights the challenges of Singapore’s stated goal to evolve from tackling a pandemic to treating Covid-19 as an endemic disease.”
It also quotes Singapore Democratic Party chairman and president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Dr Paul Tambyah, as saying that the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals’ intensive care units has remained relatively low so far.
Singapore’s ICU capacity for Covid patients is 100 beds, although this can be expanded to 300 quickly if needed. At the moment, there are less than 20 Covid patients warded in ICUs.
Among the vaccinated individuals who were infected with Covid from May to mid-September, only .09 per cent required treatment in hospitals’ intensive care units or died.
For the unvaccinated, however, the rate of those who needed ICU care or died rose to 1.7 per cent.
Even more noteworthy, among senior citizens from the age of 80 and up, 15 per cent had to be treated in intensive care or died. From this group, only 1.79 had been vaccinated.
Dr Tambyah explained that the surge in infections is because the vaccines do not prevent transmission, and also because their effectivity against infection weakens over time.
The Telegraph also pointed out that “Singapore has long been a model for strict Covid-19 protocols, with mandatory masks, efficient contact-tracing and tight border controls.”
Commenting on this, Dr Tambyah is quoted as saying, “I think that this illustrates the limitations of non-pharmaceutical measures in controlling the Delta variant which is now the dominant strain of the virus worldwide. Singapore has some of the strictest non-pharmaceutical interventions worldwide.”
He added that new and better vaccines are now needed, but that newer versions of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are being developed.
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health’s Dr Alex Cook, an infectious disease modelling expert, echoed what Mr Ong said last week when he said “The outbreak is not a signal that we need NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) forever but rather that in this post-pandemic liminal state, we must pass through a potentially large wave of mostly mild infection before we can reach endemic Covid.” /TISG
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