https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/20220426-updates-to-safe-management-measures-in-schools-and-institutes-of-higher-learning

Singapore in the middle of COVID-19 wave, about 30% of cases are reinfections: Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE: Singapore has been in the middle of a COVID-19 wave over the past month, with daily infections rising from about 1,400 a month ago to roughly 4,000 cases a day last week.

About 30 per cent are reinfections, higher than the proportion of 20 per cent to 25 per cent during the previous wave, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Friday (Apr 14).

While the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients has gone up, from 80 last month to 220 currently, Mr Ong said this is still "far below" the figure during the peak of the pandemic and much lower than the number of patients hospitalised for non-COVID infections.

Fewer than 10 COVID-19 patients have been in the intensive care unit at any one time over the past month, he added.

"What is happening is a clear demonstration of how far we have come in dealing with COVID-19," Mr Ong said. "Even during a COVID-19 infection wave like now, we continue to live life normally, we’re not preoccupied over infection numbers ... This is what endemicity should look like."

Speaking during the National Healthcare Group’s population health collective annual work plan seminar, Mr Ong also addressed comments by some people who attributed the rise in Singapore's COVID-19 infections to travellers.

"But the understanding that this caused a rise in infections is actually incorrect," the minister said.

"The virus is endemic, which means it is always circulating within the community. In such a situation, what drives our local waves is not imported infections, but reinfections of existing individuals in the community," he added.

"When the protection against infection from past infections or vaccination wanes over time, people do get reinfected and that causes the number of cases to rise and a new wave will emerge."

SUBVARIANTS

Mr Ong said Singapore continues to conduct genetic sequencing of the viral samples, noting that there are now multiple COVID-19 variants circulating, including XBB.1.16.

"Of particular interest now is XBB.1.16. It is only of particular interest because someone gave it a sexy name called Arcturus," he said.

"But really of all the variant strains now, there is really not a single one that we notice is particularly dominant. There is no evidence showing that any one of them causes more severe illness."

Singapore in February stepped down its COVID-19 measures and its disease alert to the lowest level since the pandemic started.

COVID-19 infection numbers are now updated on a weekly basis.

"Like all endemic diseases, we no longer have very granular data on COVID-19 infections," Mr Ong said, adding that the Ministry of Health continues to monitor the coronavirus closely through sampling patients who display acute respiratory symptoms and testing wastewater samples for viral fragments.

While the estimated daily infections have gone up, the Health Minister said this is a small fraction of the 20,000 or more daily cases Singapore used to experience during the peak of the pandemic.

"Our assessment is that this week, the numbers have probably stabilised, may have even come down," he added.

Although the current wave is not severe, Mr Ong cautioned that the additional caseloads do add to the heavy workload of the hospitals.

He urged people to do their part to keep themselves healthy and if they are unwell, to stay home and wear a mask.

"And if they are vulnerable groups, such as (people) aged 60 and above, get your vaccinations annually," he added.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-covid-19-wave-reinfection-cases-xbb-variants-ong-ye-kung-3417596

Singapore extends COVID-19 control order laws for a year to combat possible new variants

SINGAPORE: Control orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were extended for a year for the final time on Monday (Mar 6), allowing the authorities to react quickly to new and dangerous variants if they emerge.

Parliament passed amendments to the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 in order to extend the validity of Part 7 of the Act, which gives the Government powers to make regulations in order to prevent, protect against, delay, or otherwise control the coronavirus here.

This includes movement restrictions such as the “circuit breaker” that was in place from April to June 2020.

On Monday, Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary told the House that while Singapore now treats the coronavirus as endemic, people “must not take the current situation as a given or be complacent”.

Last month, the nation stepped down its disease alert to the lowest level since the pandemic started and lifted the final legal requirements for COVID-19 community measures - namely, the wearing of face masks on public transport as well as in indoor healthcare and residential care settings.

Dr Janil cautioned: “There is still uncertainty as to how COVID-19 will develop globally. The virus continues to circulate and will continue to mutate.

“We cannot rule out the possible emergence of new variants that can cause infection waves and strain our healthcare resources.”

He noted that the health ministry is continuing to monitor the COVID-19 situation and the evolution of the virus through its international networks and local surveillance, in order to pick up early signals of new variants that could be more transmissible or cause more severe disease.

Should such variants pop up, Singapore must continue having the necessary tools to take appropriate prevention and control measures, Dr Janil added.

“We should therefore continue to provide in our statutes the ability to implement measures used during the pandemic,” he said.

“This extension will continue to allow targeted public health measures to be implemented for the purposes of preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19, so that we can react swiftly to new and dangerous COVID-19 variants should they emerge.”

Dr Janil added that the Ministry of Health had begun a review to enhance the Infectious Diseases Act (IDA) - Singapore’s main legislation to control and prevent infectious diseases - and aims to table amendments to it in the second half of this year.

The ministry’s review includes incorporating provisions under Part 7 of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act into the IDA, so that the latter legislation “is more robust and affords us the agility to be able to cater to different situations”.

Dr Janil said: “Now that we are heading into an endemic COVID-19 new normal and are at DORSCON Green, we should work towards stepping down Part 7 … and rely on the IDA to manage new variants of concern or new pandemics."

If amendments to the IDA are passed, Part 7 of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act will be revoked.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/covid-19-pandemic-control-order-infectious-diseases-act-3328246

The Big Read: Through the frontliners' eyes, what went well and what fell short in Singapore's Covid-19 fight

SINGAPORE — Singapore has come full circle since its first Covid-19 case surfaced in January 2020, from a lockdown, shuttered borders, ever-changing permitted group sizes, mass vaccination programme, to a mask-lite existence in recent days.

Along the way, its efforts at battling the unprecedented pandemic has also won international plaudits.

In May 2021, Singapore topped the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking — which considers factors ranging from Covid-19 case numbers to freedom of movement — knocking out New Zealand which had ruled the chart for months.

Bloomberg cited Singapore's efficient vaccination programme compared to the slow rollout in New Zealand as the chief reason for the change in position.

Singapore was also one of the countries where a majority of its people feel more united than before the pandemic, according to a survey by American think tank Pew Research Center last year.

Only 22 per cent of Singapore respondents said that the country is more divided, compared with a median of 61 per cent among the 19 countries polled.

The survey also found that a majority in Singapore feel that it is very important to get the Covid-19 vaccine in order to be a good member of society, and this opinion translates to higher rates of vaccination across the population.

While Singapore’s overall handling of the pandemic is deemed successful by international standards, there were also missteps, said infectious diseases experts. One such lapse was the Government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak in migrant worker dormitories.

Singapore this week exited the acute stage of the pandemic, with the country’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) lowered from yellow to green and mask-wearing requirements largely removed.

The population has also achieved 92 per cent vaccine coverage for the primary series and the lowest mortality rate for Covid-19 infections in the world.

Infectious disease expert Leo Yee Sin, who has been at the forefront of Singapore's Covid-19 battle, told TODAY: “Barring unexpected surprises by the rapidly evolving Sars-CoV-2 virus, Singapore has reached a significant milestone of ‘normalcy’ with remarkable achievement.”

Thus, it is now time to reflect on areas of deficiency and learn from the lessons to further strengthen Singapore’s capability to take on emerging infections, added the executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

As a Government review of its Covid-19 response remains underway, TODAY speaks to infectious diseases experts and those at the front lines to take stock of a crisis that is without parallel in recent memory. The areas highlighted in this feature are those that they largely agreed on.

AREAS WHERE SINGAPORE DID WELL

1. Procurement of vaccines and test kits

Singapore has been lauded for its high vaccination coverage, which has shielded the population from new variants of the coronavirus, such as the Omicron XBB variant which emerged last October.

The Government rolled out a bivalent vaccine after it was found to be more effective against Omicron variants and used the lull period between Covid-19 waves to increase healthcare capacity and surveillance.

Infectious diseases experts largely attributed Singapore’s high vaccination rate to the rapid procurement of Covid-19 vaccines and test kits, which helped reassure the public and healthcare professionals.

Prof Alex Cook, from the National University of Singapore (NUS)'s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said that the Government’s success in reaching deals to get enough supplies of vaccines enabled the mass vaccination to start quickly, so that Singapore could move out of containment as early as possible.

“You can compare outcomes to other countries that did well in containment in the first year, like Thailand: They managed to contain the pandemic until the middle of 2021, when Delta took off, but was months behind Singapore in vaccination, and thus had many more deaths during that Delta wave,” said Prof Cook.

Prof Cook's work in infectious disease modelling and statistics was critical in the determination of the adequacy of Singapore’s healthcare capacity and whether safe management measures needed to be tightened or relaxed.

Healthcare workers whom TODAY spoke to also said that community-level testing was effective in the early detection of Covid-19 waves and the availability of antigen rapid test kits enabled the community to test and isolate or seek medical treatment swiftly.

It also helped that the test kits were sent to each household and all Covid-19-related healthcare costs for residents were borne by the Government.

“When the virus first broke out, we had people declining to get themselves tested and treated because they were worried about how much it would cost, or if it would be covered by their insurance, et cetera,” said a medical officer who works in a public hospital in central Singapore.

The 34-year-old declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“I think that was one of the reasons why Singapore was so successful in its handling of the pandemic… no one was denied basic healthcare because they could not afford it,” he added.

A lot more at https://www.todayonline.com/big-read/big-read-through-frontliners-eyes-what-went-well-and-what-fell-short-singapores-covid-19-fight-2110646

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