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Why Singaporeans may have to learn to live with COVID-19
Singapore is drawing up a road map to transit to a “new normal”, where COVID-19 is likely endemic.
Singapore’s government believes COVID-19 may never go away.
But ministers leading the city-state’s pandemic response say the good news is that it is possible to live normally with the virus in our midst.
Three key ministers have written an opinion piece in The Straits Times, outlining what they believe life will look like in a “new-normal” where COVID-19 is still around but can be controlled through mass vaccination.
The ministers, who lead the city-state’s pandemic task force, say they hope COVID-19 will become like influenza.
They haver pointed out that people carry on with their daily activities during the flu season, take simple precautions or get an annual flu jab.
The ministers want to work towards a similar outcome for Covid-19.
“We can’t eradicate it, but we can turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like influenza, hand, foot and mouth disease, or chickenpox, and get on with our lives.”
Rapid mass vaccination will be key
The ministers say “we are on track” to have two-thirds of the population vaccinated with at least their first dose by early July.
The next vaccine milestone will be to have at least two-thirds of the population fully vaccinated by National Day on August 9, supply permitting.
The ministers say they are working to bring forward the delivery of vaccines and to speed up the process.
The new-normal
It’s hoped that in the future, when someone gets COVID in Singapore, the response can be very different from now.
And instead of monitoring Covid-19 infection numbers every day, the focus will be on the outcomes, such as how many people are getting sick.
The government says in this new-normal, large gatherings can resume, businesses will have certainty that their operations will not be disrupted, and vaccinated travellers can be exempted from quarantine
But the ministers added a note of caution:
“The battle against Covid-19 will continue to be fraught with uncertainty.”