Singapore is ramping up COVID-19 testing and has warned it would not rule out reimposing tighter curbs as infections rise - moves some experts see as too cautious for the vaccine frontrunner that is preparing to live with the virus here as an endemic disease.
Strict surveillance and quarantine have been key to its success in dealing with the pandemic, but Singapore has reported a sharp rise in cases to one-year highs here this week, reported Reuters.
Spooked by the fast pace of transmission, the government has said it would hold off on reopening measures here and urged people to reduce social activities, sparking a debate among experts on if Singapore could "be bolder" given it has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
“There will necessarily have to be some trial and error but I personally think Singapore’s vaccination rate now allows us to be bolder with moving forward,” said Ooi Eng Eong, an infectious diseases expert at the Duke-NUS Medical School.
Some experts even question the need for rigorous testing in a country where 81% of the 5.7 million population are fully vaccinated and many of the new positive cases are asymptomatic.
With so many people vaccinated, “it’s not obvious that we need to know the infection status of asymptomatic contacts”, said Alex Cook, an infectious disease modelling expert at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Singapore has mandated routine testing for workers in additional “high risk” settings, started distributing antigen rapid test kits to households and urged everyone to self test even if they are fully vaccinated.
The country recorded 347 new local cases on Wednesday, nearly triple the infections from two weeks ago. It has reported 56 deaths so far and only six people are in intensive care.
