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SINGAPORE could become one of the first countries to stop recording the daily number of Covid cases in a bid to get life back to normal by treating the virus “like the flu”.
The Southeast Asian country has recorded just 36 deaths since the start of the pandemic by implementing draconian rules to curb the rate of infection, and authorities now want to drop measures such as counting the disease. number of infections each day.
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A plan has now been drawn up by three prominent members of Singapore’s Covid-19 task force to end 18 months of strict restrictions to restore public travel and gatherings without quarantine.
The city-state, with a population of 5.7 million, has recorded 62,617 cases to date – but the proposal would end a daily count.
The hope is to let people “go on with their lives” by removing the strict rules and instead controlling the virus through other means, such as mass vaccination and better treatment.
“Instead of monitoring the number of Covid-19 infections each day, we will focus on results,” the ministers of Commerce, Finance and Health wrote in a joint editorial in The Straits Times.
“How many get very sick, how many in the intensive care unit, how many have to be intubated to get oxygen, and so on. It’s like the way we now watch the flu.
“We can’t eradicate it, but we can turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like the flu, foot-and-mouth disease or chickenpox, and get our lives back on track. “
Singaporean authorities aim to give at least two-thirds of the population their first shot at the start of the month, with the same number fully stung by early August.
The ministers added: “The first evidence suggests that with vaccination we can tame Covid-19.
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“Vaccines are very effective in reducing the risk of infection as well as transmission. Even if you are infected, vaccines will help prevent severe symptoms of Covid-19.
“The bad news is that Covid-19 might never go away. The good news is that it is possible to live normally with it among us.”
Full details of the roadmap have yet to be revealed, but ministers have suggested measures such as breathalyzer-type tests, more therapeutic treatments and greater personal accountability.
Singapore’s proposal could be a harbinger of the world starting to live with Covid after more than a year of restrictions across the globe.
“LEARNING TO LIVE WITH COVID”
In the UK, Health Secretary Sajid Javid argued Britain was going to have to ‘learn to live with Covid’ – and compared its future to that of the flu.
He has pledged to lift remaining restrictions on coronaviruses on July 19 as he plans to make Britain the “most open country in Europe.”
Mr Javid also urged everyone to get their vaccine as soon as they are offered one, describing the vaccination program as “the greatest contribution you can make to this national effort”.
But scientists have warned that the pandemic is not yet over and that unvaccinated people are Covid “variant factories” that could prolong the pandemic and lead to more restrictions.
The terrible prediction comes as the World Health Organization warned that the mutant strains are already surpassing the current wave of jabs, as much of the world had hoped the horror of the virus could end.
More than half of the world’s population has yet to receive a dose of the Covid vaccine – with some three billion doses administered worldwide.
And while the highest jab rates in the world are numbers such as 73% in Iceland and 67% in the UK, some of the poorest countries such as African countries have barely scratched the surface.
There are fears that gaping holes in global vaccine coverage combined with rampant epidemics allow new variants – such as Delta and the new Lambda strains – to breed.
Mutations could then be able to beat vaccines and potentially force countries to lock down as they risk being brought back to square one in the fight against Covid.
And it also comes from the fact that many nations are seeing a lingering anti-vax sentiment as many people refuse to receive the jab.
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