Last month (24 Jun), ministers Gan Kim Yong, Lawrence Wong and Ong Ye Kung drew a new roadmap for Singaporeans to live with Covid-19. They want Singaporeans to deal with Covid-19 as part of their daily lives.
That is to say, people will go to work, travel and shop without quarantines and lockdowns, even with the coronavirus in their midst.
With enough people vaccinated, Covid-19 will be managed like other endemic diseases such as the common flu, said the three ministers, who co-chair the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19.
“The bad news is that Covid-19 may never go away. The good news is that it is possible to live normally with it in our midst,” they said. “Our next milestone will be to have at least two-thirds of our population fully vaccinated with two doses around National Day.”
Above from the correspondent and posted in TOC.
Is is a good idea to drop all restrictions and live like normal, no quarantines, no lockdowns, no masks. The US and UK are advocating this. Since they are unable to control the virus, just jab as many as possible and try to live with the virus. Australia is a funny exception. They have the virus quite under control and would still resort to lockdowns and restrictions to control the virus and not allowing it to spread or admit defeat and have to live with the virus. Countries that are relatively successful in curbing the spread would not want to let go and live with the virus.
So there will be two camps with two different views and thoughts on how to deal with and live with the virus. One choosing to live dangerously with the virus and another saying no way. The good news is that all the countries that have failed to control the virus would want to live dangerously with the virus. So Singapore would have many friends like the US, UK and India to be sleeping partners.
The bad news is that countries that are successful in controlling the virus would close their doors to Singaporeans who want to live with the virus. They may ban Singaporeans and SIA from flying into their countries.
Then what? Some may want to live dangerously and some may not. The world would be divided into two camps, the everything goes camp and another camp that says, no way, stay away from us. How many would like to join Singapore to live with the virus? I can count on US, UK and India to live dangerously and happily. Just open the door wide wide, Singapore's favourite style.
The latest spread in KTVs and Jurong Fish Market is a good opportunity to live with the virus. No need to panic, no need to clamp down, just let it be and live as if nothing has happened.
What do you think?
And the bad news is, don't pray, pray with this virus. It is too unpredictable and very challenging and can be very deadly.
32 comments:
Is it wise, in the midst of a pandemic, to change the Health Minister to one with no experience in health?
It seems that UK government knows exactly what direction they are heading to and they have installed all the necessary plans to turn this Covid19 into endemic.
Even their easing rules make more sense than PAP’s Kuku rules.
In contrast, we have a bunch of overpaid headless chickens running around in SG trying to run the show in such a clueless manner.
Goh Meng Seng
Ang moh tua kee. If the angmohs can do it, unthinking silly ex colony mentality will just follow blindly. Nevermind if the British Health Minister is infected after being fully vaccinated by the world best 90% efficacy Pfizer vaccine. They said 90% efficacy means good. Get infected does not matter. One of the 10%.
Stupidity has no cure.
Covid-19 Singapore: Towards A Future Of No Future
The fact is that the millionaire Ministers can afford to play-play with the coronavirus and the lives and health of the people, but we the masses cannot afford to play-play with the coronavirus and our own lives and children's future.
Another fact is that the Multi-Ministry Task force, comprising people who have been on the fast-track of good and easy life all their life, is running out of ideas, patience and competence and two of them are in the running for the position of the 4G Prime Minister. These two factors might have driven them to desperation and despair. During such challenging and demanding time, the pseudo leaders are easily exposed by their inability to hold their nerves and their tendency to give up easily.
Yet another fact is that after spending $100 billion or more, the economy is still not looking good for all of us, though the government has gone ahead to reward the civil service and the Ministers with bonuses based on last quarter's GDP report. So, it is very likely that they could be looking forward to more self-rewards by opening up the economy hastily and prematurely.
Another fact is that their open-and-shut measures in the last 18 months of the Pandemic have made them looked like fools and a laughing stock. So, they could have decided that enough is enough and decide to open up for business once and for all, like the conceited, egoistic psychopath Dotard Trump.
To the Ministers, it is living with the Coronavirus.
To some of us, it is living dangerously with and suffering from the coronavirus.
To yet another group of us, it could be dying, not living, with the coronavirus.
Therefore, it is not so easy to say the new normal is normal. It is, in fact, for all intent and purposes, abnormal!
This new normal is not conceived by new people. It is conceived by the same group of people who has been flip-flopping several times. So how can it be new?
This new normal is not thought out by normal people. It is thought out by extraordinary people. So how can it be normal?
We are, therefore, being led by extraordinary people into an extraordinary situation, whereby we may live or die with the coronavirus. There's no certainty.
Going forward, our future is very doubtful and uncertain. As a people, we may be ostracized as outcasts, being feared everywhere we go, and avoided by others like lepers.
That is the extraordinary situation we shall face in the future of no future.
SSO - 19 July 2021.
The best choice for a Health Minister would be one with a medical background. In times of no pandemic it may make little difference, but these are not normal times.
Suffice to ask, why must the Law Minister be one that is qualified in law? The argument is the same. They must know the substance to run the show. It cannot be putting a square peg into a round hole.
In other areas like transport, education or manpower, anyone can be chosen to learn on the job. But in medical and law, the learning is not on ad hoc basis of learning on the job, which is impossible.
Not just a one with no experience but also one who does not know the coronavirus, does not respect the coronavirus and does not care about the sufferings of the masses. He is full of himself, always talking like he is the smartest, the all-knowing and the perfect one in the world. Such a person is a very dangerous person to be given the power to decide upon or life and death.
Follow the Ang Moh? The USA and UK are facing big trouble going forward. Too eager to reopen is causing escalating infections in the US and UK. Moreover, there is now an anti vaccination movement in the USA, with more than half the population still unvaccinated. Knowing the Delta Virus is more dangerous, they nevertheless went ahead with reopening with nonchalant disregard.
The problem is that some studies point to the reduced effectiveness of their super vaccines against new variants and even if they have their whole population fully vaccinated, it does not matter if a new super virus emerge and over-ride the vaccine's effectiveness. Then what
The virus seems to be going round playing a game of musical chairs with humans. Waves are happening across countries in turn. India bore the brunt months ago. Now it is Indonesia and with the West opening wide, the next wave will strike the West again.
The world cannot be normal again going forward. It will be a case of border closing here and there depending on which country is suffering the worst of waves that keeps reappearing here and there.
You may reopen, but will you allow those highly infected countries to cross your border? If you are highly infected, would other countries open their borders to you? Just think and ponder about the pros and cons of reopening even when you have the virus under control.
Off topic:
In my opinion it is stupid to hold the Tokyo Olympics in this environment. Knowing there is now practically little economic benefit without spectators, and trying desperately to cope with infections among the athletes, the Japs ought to be more astute in knowing when to say no. Or are their hands tied like having to pay compensations to the IOC and others if it is cancelled?
It takes lots of strange people to make up this strange world indeed!
Huge forest fires in the USA. Huge floods in Germany and Europe. Hundreds dead. Wonder how the Netherlands is coping as most of the land is below sea level. Karma is not instant. But it will come. There is no escape.
How to manage like the flu? The theory sounds so simple, in reality putting it into practice is not.
Other countries, like China, may not think it wise to manage COVID19 like the flu and when we start having COVID19 tsunamis, oops flu epidemic, would such other countries let us do what we intend to do by opening their doors as wide as possible to us for economic reasons? This is different from opening legs as wide as possible for immigrants.
They don't pray pray. They are gambling against the virus. With people's lives.
It is like going to war led by a general who thinks that the enemy is firing blanks instead of real bullets.
It looks like we are being led by clueless people running around like headless chickens, with no mind of their own and being led by outside forces or taking cues from other countries.
This is a pathetic state of leadership, clueless leadership.
Four students and two staff from Six schools got infected. One of the schools is Raffles Institution and another is Naval Base Primary School in Yishun.
Yishun's Chong Pang wet market and food centre is one of the 11 new clusters reported yesterday. The details have been blocked out to make us in the dark.
As of 19 July 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 163 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. In addition, there are 9 imported cases, who have already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. 4 were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while 5 developed the illness during SHN or isolation.
One guy eats a bat, and the whole world has to shut down. Thank you very much.
The bat is the scapegoat lah!
They have now linked the KTV outbreak with Jurong Fish Port cluster. What took them so long?
Most people already knew the connection using logic.
Hi Virgo
Parents of the River Valley High murder case must be terribly distressed, not just the one that died but also the one now facing murder charges.
This is a very well regarded school with good students. How and why it came to this is tragic.
Living Dangerously And Dying Happily With Covid-19 In Singapore
By changing the term Pandemic to Endemic, we can live dangerously and die happily with the Covid-19 in our midst. This is the new normal spelt out by Three Wise Men, sent by God to Singapore, to help His Son tackle the Covid-19 Pandemic easily, without sweat.
In order to illustrate to the gentiles how to live happily with Covid-19, God keeps increasing the number of infected persons everyday, from the ports of arrival to the happy night joints, and from the happy night joints to the markets, food courts and fishery port.
From just a handful to 20, to 30, to 40, to 60, to 80, to 92, to 120 and to an additional 172 cases of COVID-19 in Singapore yesterday.
Those people have picked up the cue from the Three Wise Men very quickly. They have been living it up with the Covid-19 day and night without any respite nor restrain. They are very fast learners. They are the gangho ones. They are the street-smart ones.
They are very keen to help grow the GDP for the country. They are the loyal and model citizens that the Mafias, oops I meant Ministers, can depend upon.
They helped to bring the total number of infected cases to 63,245 and counting. They definitely deserve to be awarded a medal each for their outstanding service to the nation this coming National Day.
Out of the 172 cases, there are 163 new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections. According to MOH, 106 of these are linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster and 19 belong to the KTV cluster. According to my common sense, all these are interlinked to one another in a huge happy family. All of them are impregnated and carrying offsprings produced by one single Type Delta Variant of the Covid-19, probably from India.
Of the 163 cases, 66 are linked to previous cases, 71 have been detected through surveillance and 26 are not traceable to any infected person. This is just a small initial demonstration of how to live with Covid-19.
Moreover, there are 9 new happily imported cases. The country from which they have come from is a closely guarded secret that the daft Singaporean public should not know. Otherwise, they may turn racist or turn amok.
4 of the 9 happily imported infected persons were detected upon arrival in Singapore. The other 5 were only detected after they have developed the symptoms of the disease, while they were already inside Singapore. This is another aspect that shows you what living with the Covid-19 is all about.
According to last night’s news, 243 cases are currently warded in hospital. Most are learning how to live dangerously with the Covid-19.
There are five cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and one in critical condition in the intensive care unit. None amongst these six cases is fully vaccinated. They are learning to die with the Covid-19.
It is such a wonderful experience to live, to suffer and to die with the Covid-19. This Singapore model of the Three Wise Men must be recommended to the rest of the World.
The Three Wise Men must be recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize!
Queen of Hearts.
[In Singapore, analysts suggested the trajectory of the pandemic policy may be linked to a leadership transition.
A handful of ministers – Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Education Minister Chan Chun Sing – are among the candidates to succeed Prime Minister Lee.
The previous named successor, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, 60, in April took himself out of the running for the job, citing the need for a younger leader to take over from Lee when the pandemic subsides.
Some commentators have suggested the various candidates could have different tolerances for reopening; those with economic portfolios might be more eager to push ahead while those in the social and health ministries could favour caution.] - SCMP July 17
Need to re-open the economy ASAP, we need to live with the virus like flu. U don't get vaccinated u die your business . .
If the choice is to keep it tight, jobs and livelihood would be definitely be greatly affected. How much financial assistance like wage supplements can the state coffers tolerate? Two weeks shutdown of some markets and fishmongers and others are already asking for financial help.
The other choice is opening up, with businesses running normally and jobs as usual, but definitely risking another serious outbreak again, that will push the ball into the Government's court to tackle and control.
Can someone suggest a more suitable alternative? Without hindsight as to whether the virus will go away, it is a difficult situation to fathom.
You pay me ten times what each of the members of the Multi-Ministry Task Force, the Experts Committee and the Cabinet collectively, I will help Singaporeans solve this problem.
I don't get it. 172 cases! Isn't this is what should be expected to live with the virus? Why panic, why start to reintroduce stringent measures? Why closed all the KTVs and markets?
This is a good example of what to expect when the MTF talked about living with the virus. Just announce to the people that life in Singapore would be like that. Maybe 172 is still too small a number. Add another zero if we are to open up, remove all restrictions like the xiao angmoh in UK, and let all businesses to open up, including the KTVs.
Now, on the one hand you want to live with the virus, want to open up, then want to close down businesses, want to introduce more curbs?
Which is which? Which way to go? Please make up your mind, Don't keep flip flopping.
But one thing to remember, Singapore is not as big as UK or the USA. Don't always think that if American can do it, Singapore also can. It is a tiny little city. Once got swamp by the virus, there is no where to run, no where to hide.
The Pandemic is a great opportunity for the Singapore economy to implode, get rid of the 1.9 million foreigners and revert to pre-2004 status when we have 3.5 million Sinkies and just 0.4 million PRs
Lolz!
But seriously, it’s not about the KTV lounges only.
With the unlinked one’s and two’s, it means we have hidden community clusters.
Even when we have a couple of days of no cases, or even months of no cases, we should be mentally prepared that we have hidden clusters among us.
Last year, with the less infectious variants, we know that we have an average of 2~3 people infected by one infected case.
But 80% can be mild or moderate. Of these, as much as 30~40%, perhaps half or more, could be asymptomatic or silent carriers.
At the same time, we also know the infection doesn’t hit the folks equally.
Some folks have very high viral loads and are very infectious. Others have low viral load and don’t infect others.
Last year, some 10%~20% would be responsible for 80%~90% of all secondary infections.
These are the superspreaders.
One study of saliva samples last year in Colorado showed that as few as 2% of the cases could be responsible for 90% of the viral loads.
Some 70% did not infect anyone else.
At the same time, about 80% are moderate or mild. So folks may assume they are just having the usual common coughs and colds.
Yet, we know that even covided people with no symptoms can have as much viral loads as the symptomatic covid cases.
These are silent transmitters, perhaps infecting others who are also silent transmitters.
So we know we could have 3 generations of silent transmissions, perhaps more, perhaps less, before someone is sick enough to see a doctor.
It’s a matter of chance that we have a big silent cluster is a hospital, in a prison,
in a nursing home, in a local precinct, or in a KTV cluster.
While we may wrinkle up our nose to see a big cluster emerging from KTV patrons, staff and hostesses, we should be thankful that one of them had the sense to go see a doctor when she was unwell.
In this way, we surface the silent cases by rapid contact tracing and testing.
With this, we can slow down the community spread, and buy us time to vaccinate and protect more people.
With vaccination, our old folks will be better protected.
Currently, only about 70% of our folks above 70 years old have been vaccinated.
This is much much lower than what USA, UK and Israel have - they have over 90% of their folks over 70 years old, or even over 50 years old vaccinated.
This is a huge advantage in preventing serious, critical or fatal covid infection.
Sure, it may not fully protect against infection, but by protecting strongly against severe or critical illness, vaccination converts the covid risks to that similar to flu risks for the old folks.
So the biggest challenge is the relative low vaccination among our old folks above 70 years old.
True, it is higher than many countries, but some 20% less than the best in class folks.
This is a key setback for Sg.
Firstly, we have less of the old folks protected.
With the Delta variant, we will continue to see seepages of infection, and the most vulnerable continue to be our old folks.
Even staying at home won’t help.
Family members and others can bring the virus to us, even when they are vaccinated.
But if the entire household has been vaccinated, excluding those under 12 years old, we reduce the risk of household infection, and so protect the old folks and the vulnerable younger ones with other co-morbidities.
Second, the more our old folks and the rest of the population are vaccinated, the faster we can re-open various economic activities.
Don’t think of Delta as coming from India.
Just as the D614G variant quickly became dominant all over the world, displacing the original Wuhan variant, the Delta variant has become dominant in many countries.
It is roaring through over 90 countries, and has seeped into countries with strict restrictions like China, Taiwan, Australia.
It is roaring through Asean, and into well vaccinated Israel.
In France, its cases are doubling every 5 days, and it is now over 98% of all new cases in the UK.
Within the next few months, it will dominate the world.
So we should expect it to come into Sg from all over the world, and to seep into Sg regularly.
Border closing and banning entry from certain high prevalence countries is to buy us time to get more of our folks vaccinated.
Hence, vaccination is our best defence for lives and livelihood.
Meanwhile, go get tested to protect yourself and your loved ones.
The Delta variant is twice as infectious, and run faster than our contac tracers, and spread faster than our vaccination rate.
For young people, the Delta variant is also twice as virulent or deadly.
Even for young people, more need oxygen support, and twice as many need to be hospitalised in UK.
So please go vaccinate if we have not yet done so.
Young ones can vaccinate to better protect themselves and their family members.
Old ones should vaccinate to protect themselves and their friends and families.
Don’t wait before it’s too late.
It is seriously not fun at all to be struggling from lack of oxygen.
For Covid, we can have silent pneumonia and still feel well.
The doctors called this “happy hypoxemia” - our body is struggling to get oxygen, and yet covid prevents the feedback mechanism that makes us feel breathless.
Without feeling breathless, we still think we are fine, when we are in reality getting sicker and sicker.
But the time we start to feel breathless, our lungs would have been badly damaged and we would already become critically ill.
So don’t think we are well just bcos we feel well.
And don’t think we are sick just bcos we have some side effects from the vaccination.
Don’t wait till it’s too late to vaccinate too.
It takes times for the body to build up and strengthen its covid defences.
So go while we can.
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All the incompetent, under-performing, over-confident, talk-cock kings, and flip-flopping nincoompoos should be sacked immediately!
The longer they stay, the more problems they are going to create, instead of helping to solve the Covid problem.
In North Korea, they would have been sent to the firing squad long ago.
In Russia, they would have been jailed long ago.
In China, they would have been sent to labour camps long ago.
In America, they would have been assassinated by CIA assassins or the Secret Service agents.
In UK, they would have been sent to the Court to become court Jesters at the Queen's pleasure.
Only in Singapore, they are allowed to walk free and create more havoc by the days and still keep their pays.
Yah, we can joke about hosts and hostesses.
But seriously, folks, instead of blaming others, let’s hold the mirror to ourselves.
When the familial lane was open before March this year, Vietnam was a low incidence country.
So folks who came in on whatever pass have been in Sg for a while.
If any one of the visitors have covid, they are likely to have caught the virus from someone among us.
Don’t demonise others.
The Delta virus is highly infectious.
The pandemic this year is not the same as the pandemic last year.
We know Delta is much more infectious.
It may also transmit faster and more efficiently as an aerosol, compared to last year.
They could come in via arrivals, or they could come in via fishing vessels delivering their daily catch.
And they could hop, skip and jump to anyone anywhere.
All it takes is one super spreader to seed a huge cluster and cause a large community outbreak with the potential to overwhelm.
So don’t demonise folks who get infected.
Just focus on lessons learnt.
One important lesson:
Don’t bar hop
Don’t doctor hop
Don’t socialise intensively.
If we wish to eat with others, don’t just eat with different groups every day just bcos the rules don’t forbid it.
Keep a separation of at least a week between events or groups, better still keep a 2 week separation or even a three week interval.
Do so until daily unlinked cases drop below 1~2 daily, and the linked but unquarantined cases drop below 5 daily.
Don’t play play, bcos this can kill many innocent folks.
Yah, we can throw a tantrum and get upset about sudden changes in rules.
But the virus doesn’t care about our tantrums.
If we cannot work together to eat and play safely in these 2~3 weeks, we will be whacked like any other country which had gone through desperation and despair when hospitals are overwhelmed.
The virus doesn’t care whom we try to blame or demonise.
They just do their hop, skip, and jump to light fires faster than we can immunise our folks.
So get out of our pampered tantrums and whining blame game.
Hunker down and be serious in protecting each other and helping each other.
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@Anon (11.44) - Best comment of the thread. 👆
Unless there is comprehensive testing of each and every individual, the chances are there will always be hidden cases among citizens. This applies to every country, hence I say the reported infections of every country is botched in varying degrees. It is just statistics that roughly tells us about the outcome of those that have been tested, ignoring those untested and how serious the infections are in those countries.
In the latest situation in Singapore, we never really know which cluster came first, although it has been proven they are linked - the Fishery Port or the KTV, as they probably cross infect each other due to the free movement of those infected. The more serious problem is the now untraceable infections that may have occurred in the some wet markets where human traffic for infection is far more conducive. I hope it is not what I assume.
Looks like infections will rise further, but to what extent nobody knows. Vaccination does come with certain risk, but the trade off is no really serious complications will result if I still get infected. That is some comfort.
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