Skip to main content

Vigilance needed for ‘SG opening’

NewsColony
Vigilance needed for ‘SG opening’


a group of people standing around a fire

© The Independent Singapore

Singapore—There is no doubt the country’s Covid-19 situation is much improved, with fewer new cases reported daily but at least one public health expert is saying that caution will be needed for some time to come.

Singapore is set to start additional eased restrictions beginning from this week.

Associate professor at National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Dr Hsu Li Yang says the much-diminished number of infections show that “the Covid-19 epidemic in Singapore is truly under control, including in the migrant worker dormitories.” He was quoted by South China Morning Post (SCMP).

However, at least one expert is calling for “eternal vigilance” as the country reopens, given that travellers from overseas will begin to come to Singapore again starting from next month, although they will be limited in number and movement.

Associate professor at NUS’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health Dr Jeremy Lim is quoted in SCMP as saying, “What’s critical beyond vigilance is that Singapore preserves our capabilities in public health interventions including contact tracing, rapid testing, isolating, so that when the inevitable community outbreak occurs, we are fully prepared.”

Another expert, Dr Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, says people would need to continue wearing masks. He adds that while the number of infections is likely to dwindle down to zero within the next month, a resurgence of infections is not impossible, as the country opens up to foreign visitors to participate in conferences and meetings.

These Mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) gatherings will be limited to 250 in size and will hopefully provide a needed bolster to the tourism sector.

Guests from overseas will be required to use an app for contact tracing and will be allowed to meet within designated cohorts of 50. They will also be provided with “safe itineraries” which the Trade Ministry will monitor for compliance.

According to Dr Leong, these visitors, as well as returning citizens and permanent residents, will carry the biggest risk for an infection to begin again in Singapore. But another group to closely watch out would be the country’s workers, he added.

The heads of the multi-ministry task force assigned to address the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, Education minister Lawrence Wong and Health Minister Gan Kim Yong have said that zero infections among the foreign worker community may take some time yet.

Mr Wong says he expects to see a “very, very low level of ongoing transmission” in spite of frequent testing, while Mr Gan said there would be undetected asymptomatic cases until a vaccine is produced.

He adds, “There‘s no possibility of zero cases in the whole of Singapore until we have the vaccine available, so therefore I think we need to continue to be vigilant.” —/TISG

Source: MSN

The post Vigilance needed for ‘SG opening’ appeared first on NewsColony.
NewsColony



source https://newscolony.com/vigilance-needed-for-sg-opening/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers book hotel room for homeless man with SingapoRediscovers vouchers

NewsColony Volunteers book hotel room for homeless man with SingapoRediscovers vouchers © The Independent Singapore Singapore — A group of volunteers from the Mummy Yummy Singapore welfare organisation donated their SingapoRediscovers Vouchers to book a hotel room for a homeless man. The man, who was identified as Jayden, did not have a place to live while waiting for the Housing Board (HDB) to allocate him a rental flat. In a Facebook post on Mummy Yummy Singapore’s page on Wednesday (Dec 16), the volunteers said: “We used our $100 Rediscover Singapore vouchers to redeem hotel stay for him and successfully booked 9 days worth of stay at 3 days per voucher.” They added that they were unable to book a longer stay because of higher hotel rates over Christmas and New Year. The volunteers hoped that they would be able to bridge Jayden’s stay until he got a flat. “Thanks our government for giving us these vouchers which in return we can put them to good use for people in need,” th...

Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers

NewsColony Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers Li JIaqi and Yang Mi joined forces to sell products online during coronavirus, blurring the boundaries between conventional celebrities and live streamers. Photo: @TrendingWeibo/Twitter The line between Chinese celebrities and live streamers continues to blur these days. Luxury brands are expanding their pool of friend-of-the-brand endorsements with top live streamers – Louis Vuitton, for example, tapped both actress Song Jia and “lipstick king” live streamer Li Jiaqi for its much anticipated 520 Chinese Valentine’s Day campaign. Celebrities, actors and singers are jumping on the bandwagon to test out their commercial values on e-commerce platforms, with Yang Mi, Li Xiaolu and Michelle Ye Xuan just a few of the screen stars moonlighting on live streaming portals including Taobao, TikTok and Red Book. So why are Chinese celebrities so eager to embrace the battlefield of live streaming e-commerce, and how are they getting on so...

90 Day Fiance: How To Watch Happily Ever After & B90 Strikes Back

NewsColony 90 Day Fiance: How To Watch Happily Ever After & B90 Strikes Back After the runaway success of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days , TLC is blessing us with more 90 Day Fiancé spin-offs. This summer, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way , B90 Strikes Back , and 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? will all be on the air. Here is when to watch each of them: 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way premiered on June 1, but there is plenty of drama still ahead. The show airs on TLC on Monday nights at 9pm EST, and the third episode is scheduled for June 15. TLC is running reruns regularly, and you can always catch up online on several streaming services . 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way reverses the original concept of 90 Day Fiancé, where people travel from around the world to the United States to meet and marry their partners. Instead, people from the United States travel to meet and marry their partners in other countries. The season 2 cast includes season 1 fan favorites Jenny a...