China can’t look to Singapore for a way to live with Covid-19, health economist says
- There has been little public sign of support in China for a Singapore-style approach.
- the city state failed to contain cases when it eased restrictions
- the key to opening up is whether all countries have got transmission under control
Singapore’s
“experiment” to live with the coronavirus – and its subsequent spike in
infections – might not be a useful model for China as it considers
whether to reopen its borders, a Chinese health researcher has said.
“This
safety net protecting the health of 1.4 billion people did not come
easily. We can’t let it go just like that,” Li Ling, from Peking
University’s National School of Development, was quoted as saying by
mainland news website Guancha.cn on Wednesday.
Restrictions in
Singapore were reimposed in late September after cases surged and
hospitals came under pressure. The restrictions, originally set to
expire on Monday, will continue until November 21, Singaporean officials
said on Wednesday after a record 3,994 cases were reported on Tuesday.
Li
said Singapore’s strategy had failed to contain the number of cases and
if similar conditions occurred in China, a country of 1.4 billion, “it
would not be just a matter of 3,000 daily new cases”.
The key to China reopening was whether infections and new variants were under control in other countries.
“As long as one country cannot control the virus, no country can eliminate the threat of infection,” she said.
Anonymous
13 comments:
COVID-19: No Country Is Safe Until Every Country Is Safe?
PM Lee Hsien Loong has repeatedly said that "No country is safe until every country is safe!" or words to that effect.
That is very true. That is the reality.
Many countries' leaders have also said the same thing. Even the UN and WHO Chiefs have said similar things.
If they sincerely believe in that reality, then the correct strategy to follow is to ensure that every country takes responsibility to ensure that each and everyone of them is safe from Covid-19 infections.
To make a country safe is to stop allowing infections to take place. To do that is to lockdown the country entirely and never to allow the infections to be carried into the country by foreigners or locals.
However, Singapore has been deliberately allowing the Covid-19 Coronavirus to be imported from other countries all the time, even during the half-hearted, half-baked lockdown called Circuit Breaker.
Living with Covid-19 allows visitors to enter Singapore without quarantine and freedom to roam about anywhere they like, untraceable.
This is a very dangerous recipe for further proliferation of the spread of Covid-19 across the whole country, into every loop and corner. There is no escape. The whole population will be infected over time.
Is this the aim of the Singapore Multi-Ministry Task Force? Looks like it.
If that is the case, then the reality that "No country is safe until every country is safe" is not taken to heart. The experiment of "Living with Covid-19" at the expense of Singaporeans suffering and dying, is a mockery of that reality.
SSO - 22 October, 2021.
[“We are seeing people who have been vaccinated become infected. In fact, it’s just a matter of time before everyone in the population becomes infected with COVID-19 ,” Teo says.]
- Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore, commenting in The Australian Financial Review article "Singapore’s immunity trap a lesson for Australia" on Oct 8, 2021
Good to see all the PAP Millionaires and their family members get infected first before all the rest. Leaders must lead the way. Otherwise they are not fit to be leaders.
The business of Undertakers in Singapore are booming. Many thanks to the Ministers who have made this possible.
They are now preparing to hold more funeral and cremation services for COVID-19 deaths.
Some funeral services said how relatives remember those who pass on has changed during the pandemic.
On Wednesday (Oct 20), Singapore recorded 18 deaths due to complications from COVID-19, its highest daily count since the pandemic started.
Another 16 deaths were logged on Thursday, taking Singapore's total COVID-19 fatalities to 280.
It looks like the number of deaths is steadily increasing, despite the high percentage of fully vaccinated people. This gives rise to the belief that the vaccines are of little protection from COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Living with COVID-19 has become DYING from COVID-19 instead. This is very scary and unsettling.
Something has to be done urgently. Otherwise, more unnecessary and preventable deaths will occur.
Put money in my Ministers' and MPs bank accounts first.
COVID-19 Singapore: Why Is The Healthcare System Still So Unprepared For A Major Health Crisis?
“At the current situation, we face considerable risk of the healthcare system being overwhelmed,” said Lawrence Wong, Co-chair of the Multi-Ministry COVID-19 Task Force.
MOH reported last month that about 100,000 people aged 60 and above were yet to be vaccinated.
About 100 of them are being infected each day. The numbers may seem small but with a health system limited in size, this is a big number.
Shockingly and surprisingly, for such a rich and advanced country, Singapore has only 200 ICU places!
Despite more than a year and half have past, the government has done nothing to expand the Hospitals ICU capacity and capability?
Moreover, Singapore has only about 1650 isolation beds and this limitation has also not been expanded.
There was a new daily high of 18 deaths in Singapore on Wednesday - as well as a near record 3862 new cases - and the unvaccinated elderly accounted for more than two-thirds of patients who had passed away from the virus or were in the ICU, Health Minister and fellow taskforce co-chair Ong Ye Kung said.
The fact is that out of the 100,000 seniors not vaccinated, the total number of recent deaths do not even account for 1% of 100,000. Moreover, those seniors who succumbed were those who have underlying medical conditions.
So, the focus on the unvaccinated seniors is a frivolous pursuit. All the energy, attention and focus, and propaganda and coercion, to get the unvaccinated seniors to go for vaccination, despite continuing to insist that Vaccination Is VOLUNTARY, could be better spent on how to improve the hospitals capacity and capability in taking care, treating and helping the seniors to recover and get well.
Every life is important. Every life is precious. No matter it's an infant or a 100-year-old person, every life deserves equal medical attention and treatment. Every life deserves to be saved, as far as possible.
The most ruthless, cruel and inhuman is to let the oldies die prematurely as a result of one's personal or national economic agendas.
LIPS.
Beijing’s insistence on zero-Covid strategy challenges long-held assumptions about China
- Despite vaccinating three quarters of its eligible population, China shows no signs of transitioning to a Covid-endemic approach like the rest of the world
- This challenges long-held assumptions about the Chinese state being a strong, high-capacity one that thinks long term, and about an isolationist China being the result of Western efforts to contain her
Donald Low is senior lecturer and professor of practice in public policy, and director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Donald Trumpet Low is a nobody. His words carry no weight whatsoever.
Analysis-Vaccinated Singapore shows zero-COVID countries cost of reopening
"Singapore may potentially experience two to three epidemic waves as measures are increasingly relaxed," said Alex Cook, a disease modelling expert at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
"Until then, deaths will probably continue to rise, unless many of the residual unvaccinated elders can be vaccinated or more get their booster shot."
Cook expects the current wave to subside as the population builds up immunity, with most infections mild enough for recovery at home.
"Most of our deaths come from the very small percentage of unvaccinated people," said Dale Fisher, an expert on infectious diseases at the National University Hospital.
"The reality is that as COVID becomes endemic more and more people will get COVID."
"I do not think that easing of restrictions is going to have any impact on the case numbers," said Paul Tambyah, president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
"The key remains to reach the remaining unvaccinated seniors and protect the vulnerable."
Experts in what? Those are no experts. Those are double-talking political animals. Every furker put the blame on the unvaccinated instead of on the vaccines. All of them, including the Thamby, are barking up the wrong tree.
Congrats SG, steady improvement for all, including our hardworking Foreign Workers.
Up to 3,000 migrant workers can visit Little India, Geylang Serai each week from Oct 30: MOM
From Oct 30, as many as 3,000 vaccinated migrant workers — up from the existing cap of 500 — will be allowed to visit Little India and Geylang Serai every week, for up to eight hours per visit, as the authorities expand a pilot community visit programme for the workers.
The move follows “positive outcomes and encouraging feedback” from the pilot, which was launched last month, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in a statement on Friday (Oct 22).
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During the pilot, up to 500 vaccinated migrant workers from selected dormitories were able to visit Little India each week for up to six hours each time.
Around 700 migrant workers in total from 30 dormitories participated in the month-long pilot.
The workers were required to take Covid-19 antigen rapid tests (ART) before and after the visits, and none has tested positive so far, MOM added.
“Most workers polled… are satisfied with the visit itineraries and arrangements. Some have provided feedback that they would appreciate longer visit hours and more location options,” said MOM.
Read also
Covid-19 pilot scheme: First migrant worker groups leave dorms to pray, shop and meet friends in Little India
Workers living in dormitory blocks without Covid-19 clusters will now be eligible to sign up for community visits.
Previously, only workers from dormitories with no positive Covid-19 cases were eligible for the pilot.
The dormitories that the workers live in must have implemented good Covid-19 safety measures and have high vaccination rates among the residents.
Migrant workers participating in the community visits will be required to take an ART on the day of the visit.
The ministry said it will monitor the progress of the community visits and assess further expansion of their scope and scale “at an appropriate time”.
MORE VISITS TO RECREATION CENTRES ALLOWED
Read also
Up to 500 vaccinated migrant workers a week can leave dorms to visit designated areas in pilot to ease curbs
From Oct 30, all vaccinated migrant workers will also be allowed to visit recreation centres up to three times a week, up from twice a week currently.
They will also no longer be required to undergo a pre-visit ART, MOM added.
There are eight recreation centres islandwide, with the workers assigned to a fixed centre.
Unvaccinated migrant workers will be able to visit these centres up to three times a week as well, using their negative ART results from their rostered routine testing or a pre-visit ART.
Why unvaccinated foreign workers can visit such public places while unvaccinated locals cannot even go to coffee shops and malls? Such blatant double-standards discrimination against own people is totally unreasonable, unfair, unprincipled and unacceptable!
Looks like Sinking Land is having a group of Anti-PMET, Anti-Old Folks, Anti-Unvaccinated, Anti-Poor, and Anti-Locals at the helm.
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