Singapore: Singapore is in a stable position in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, but the city-state must remain vigilant amid profound uncertainties, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat told Parliament on Monday. Heng, also the Finance Minister, said these uncertainties include how effective other countries will be in containing the pandemic and reopening their economies, as well as when an effective and safe vaccine can be developed.
“But Singapore will adapt to living with the coronavirus even with these unknowns,” said Heng in a ministerial statement as an update on Singapore’s response against the pandemic and its strategies to emerge stronger from the crisis. The government has worked out the steps on how to further reopen the economy safely, with details of a Phase 3 roadmap to be released by the multi-ministry task force in the coming weeks, said Heng.
This will include the expected timeline for moving to Phase 3, changes to current regulations on the size of group gatherings and at mass events, he said. To further reopen the economy safely, the government will focus on four key prongs vaccination, testing, tracing and safe management.
Singapore is working very actively to secure early access to safe and effective vaccines, if and when they become available, said Heng. This includes being an early supporter of the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility, a global initiative to accelerate the development and production of potential vaccines while ensuring equitable access.
Singapore is also looking at procuring vaccines from a number of pharmaceutical companies, while supporting local efforts in developing a vaccine and the building up of manufacturing capacity. As overseas travel restrictions are progressively eased and more activities resume, it has become even more critical that each of us play our part to exercise social responsibility and adhere to the safe management measures, in order to keep our family and friends safe as we progress towards Phase 3, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told the House on Monday.
The city state will also remain in Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) Orange for the time being, said Gan responding to Parliamentary questions on whether Singapore would be easing its COVID-19 safe management measures. Even as we move towards Phase 3, the new normal will be different from what we were used to in the pre-COVID days, the Channel News Asia quoted Gan as saying.
Meanwhile, Singapore reported six new COVID-19 cases on Monday, five of which are from dormitories for foreign workers here and one from the community. In addition, there is one imported case, said MOH, adding that the case has been placed on stay-home notice.
These cases takes total infections to 57,819. The six imported cases, reported on Sunday, came from India, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Indonesia between September 23 and October 1.
Currently, there are 43 confirmed cases in hospital while 167 are recuperating at community facilities. With 13 cases discharged from hospital on Sunday, 57,575 have recovered from the disease.
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