SINGAPORE: Singapore needs to “take quick action” to dampen the increasing likelihood of an "exponential rise" in COVID-19 cases, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (Sep 6).
Speaking to reporters, Mr Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, said the transmission rate of COVID-19 has to be slowed down, and Singapore will “attempt to do so” without going into another phase of heightened alert.
“What is of concern to us is not just the absolute number of cases, but the rate at which the virus is spreading. And that’s the reproduction rate, or R.
“Currently, the R is more than one. Cases are doubling every week. And if we continue on this trajectory of infection, it means we could have 1,000 cases in two weeks, or possibly 2,000 cases in a month.”
From the experience of other countries, when cases rise “so sharply” there will be many more cases in the ICU and more people succumbing to the virus, said Mr Wong, who is also the Finance Minister.
“It’s not just the unvaccinated seniors. Because even for vaccinated persons, there will be a small proportion of them falling severely ill, and if you have a very high infection rate ... the small proportion will translate to a sizable number of ICU cases and eventually
fatalities,” he added.
“So we have to slow down the transmission rate and bring it down. We will attempt to do so without going back to another heightened alert. And in particular, we will go for aggressive contact tracing and ringfencing of cases and clusters, and push for more pervasive testing.”
The number of new infection cases in the community has almost doubled to more than 1,200 cases in the past week, up from about 600 cases in the week before, said MOH in a separate press release.
Unvaccinated people are still susceptible to severe illness and death from COVID-19. Over the last 28 days, 6.7 per cent of unvaccinated cases fell severely ill or died, MOH noted in the press release.
“If the infection continues at this trajectory, we will see a doubling of cases every week. This means that we can expect to see more individuals suffer serious consequences due to COVID-19 infection,” the press release read.
“Thus, we need to take quick action now to dampen the increasing likelihood of an exponential increase in cases. This will also buy us time to get more people, in particular seniors, vaccinated as soon as possible, and also to roll out our booster programme to those aged 60 and above.”
The frequency of the mandatory fast and easy test rostered routine testing regime will be stepped up from once every two weeks to once a week from Sep 13, said Mr Wong.
The enhanced frequency will allow cases to be detected and ringfenced more quickly, said MOH in the press release.
“This is particularly important given the infectiousness of the Delta variant, as observed locally where there have been shorter periods between each generation of infection,” the press release read.
The regime is currently in place for higher-risk settings like F&B, personal care services and gym and fitness studios.
It will be extended to more settings with “frequent community interactions”, said MOH in the press release. This includes workers in retail, malls, supermarkets as well as delivery personnel and transport workers, said Mr Wong.
These tests will continue to be administered primarily through the Employer Supervised SelfSwab. The Government will subsidise the costs of all tests under this enhanced surveillance regime for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people until the end of 2021, said MOH in the press release.
Regular testing for employees working onsite beyond these settings will also be stepped up, said Mr Wong.
The multi-ministry task force will distribute antigen rapid test kits to all companies so that they can administer weekly tests for their staff over the next two months, he added.
Each company will receive eight kits per employee for weekly testing of their staff over a two-month period, said MOH in the press release.
All companies are expected to initiate weekly testing for their onsite staff, and the tests can be administered by the individuals by themselves at home or at the work premises, the press release read.
Employers should put in place a process to ensure that the tests are done properly and report the results to the respective Government agencies, said MOH.
“We hope that the distribution of ART kits to both households and companies will help to instil a culture of responsibility in administering regular self-tests. This will become an important tool in the new normal, so that we can dampen the impact of COVID-19 without having to impose heightened alerts,” the press release read.
The Government will also be sending out health risk warnings and health risk alerts to people when a cluster of cases is identified, on top of quarantining close contacts, said MOH in the press release.
This will “cast a wide net” around the cases and contain the clusters quickly, the press release read.
“With more cases circulating in the community, there will also be more people being issued such HRWs (health risk warnings) or HRAs (health risk alerts).”
These are not quarantine alerts, MOH said.
But individuals who receive a health risk warning will be required by law to get a polymerase chain reaction test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result from their first test, the ministry said in the press release.
After that, they will need to continue to take antigen rapid tests, and then another PCR test on the 14th day, said MOH.
People who receive a health risk alert are not subject to the same measures, but are “strongly encouraged” to go for a PCR test as soon as possible. Individuals who receive either alerts should also reduce their social interactions for 14 days, the press release read.
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Speaking to reporters, Mr Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, said the transmission rate of COVID-19 has to be slowed down, and Singapore will “attempt to do so” without going into another phase of heightened alert.
“What is of concern to us is not just the absolute number of cases, but the rate at which the virus is spreading. And that’s the reproduction rate, or R.
“Currently, the R is more than one. Cases are doubling every week. And if we continue on this trajectory of infection, it means we could have 1,000 cases in two weeks, or possibly 2,000 cases in a month.”
From the experience of other countries, when cases rise “so sharply” there will be many more cases in the ICU and more people succumbing to the virus, said Mr Wong, who is also the Finance Minister.
“It’s not just the unvaccinated seniors. Because even for vaccinated persons, there will be a small proportion of them falling severely ill, and if you have a very high infection rate ... the small proportion will translate to a sizable number of ICU cases and eventually
fatalities,” he added.
“So we have to slow down the transmission rate and bring it down. We will attempt to do so without going back to another heightened alert. And in particular, we will go for aggressive contact tracing and ringfencing of cases and clusters, and push for more pervasive testing.”
The number of new infection cases in the community has almost doubled to more than 1,200 cases in the past week, up from about 600 cases in the week before, said MOH in a separate press release.
Unvaccinated people are still susceptible to severe illness and death from COVID-19. Over the last 28 days, 6.7 per cent of unvaccinated cases fell severely ill or died, MOH noted in the press release.
“If the infection continues at this trajectory, we will see a doubling of cases every week. This means that we can expect to see more individuals suffer serious consequences due to COVID-19 infection,” the press release read.
“Thus, we need to take quick action now to dampen the increasing likelihood of an exponential increase in cases. This will also buy us time to get more people, in particular seniors, vaccinated as soon as possible, and also to roll out our booster programme to those aged 60 and above.”
TESTING REGIME UPDATES
The frequency of the mandatory fast and easy test rostered routine testing regime will be stepped up from once every two weeks to once a week from Sep 13, said Mr Wong.
The enhanced frequency will allow cases to be detected and ringfenced more quickly, said MOH in the press release.
“This is particularly important given the infectiousness of the Delta variant, as observed locally where there have been shorter periods between each generation of infection,” the press release read.
The regime is currently in place for higher-risk settings like F&B, personal care services and gym and fitness studios.
It will be extended to more settings with “frequent community interactions”, said MOH in the press release. This includes workers in retail, malls, supermarkets as well as delivery personnel and transport workers, said Mr Wong.
These tests will continue to be administered primarily through the Employer Supervised SelfSwab. The Government will subsidise the costs of all tests under this enhanced surveillance regime for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people until the end of 2021, said MOH in the press release.
Regular testing for employees working onsite beyond these settings will also be stepped up, said Mr Wong.
The multi-ministry task force will distribute antigen rapid test kits to all companies so that they can administer weekly tests for their staff over the next two months, he added.
Each company will receive eight kits per employee for weekly testing of their staff over a two-month period, said MOH in the press release.
All companies are expected to initiate weekly testing for their onsite staff, and the tests can be administered by the individuals by themselves at home or at the work premises, the press release read.
Employers should put in place a process to ensure that the tests are done properly and report the results to the respective Government agencies, said MOH.
“We hope that the distribution of ART kits to both households and companies will help to instil a culture of responsibility in administering regular self-tests. This will become an important tool in the new normal, so that we can dampen the impact of COVID-19 without having to impose heightened alerts,” the press release read.
PUBLIC HEALTH ALERTS
The Government will also be sending out health risk warnings and health risk alerts to people when a cluster of cases is identified, on top of quarantining close contacts, said MOH in the press release.
This will “cast a wide net” around the cases and contain the clusters quickly, the press release read.
“With more cases circulating in the community, there will also be more people being issued such HRWs (health risk warnings) or HRAs (health risk alerts).”
These are not quarantine alerts, MOH said.
But individuals who receive a health risk warning will be required by law to get a polymerase chain reaction test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result from their first test, the ministry said in the press release.
After that, they will need to continue to take antigen rapid tests, and then another PCR test on the 14th day, said MOH.
People who receive a health risk alert are not subject to the same measures, but are “strongly encouraged” to go for a PCR test as soon as possible. Individuals who receive either alerts should also reduce their social interactions for 14 days, the press release read.
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