[Levin]

By DAVID RISING and ANNABELLE LIANG
yesterday


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With a hard-line “circuit-breaker” lockdown early in the pandemic, the major business and trade hub of Singapore was able to keep the spread of new coronavirus cases to the single or low double-digits for nearly a year. Now as it’s embarking on a high-profile test of reopening, they’re skyrocketing, and hit a new record of 2,258 on Wednesday, laying bare the challenges faced.

But behind the headline figures, there is evidence the plan is working, with its focus more on the severity of infections and hospitalizations than the number of daily cases.

With about 82% of the population over age 12 fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry, hospitals have not become overwhelmed, with 98% of new cases either asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.

Only 0.2% of infected people have required ICU care and 0.1% have died — more than 65% of whom were either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated.

And the overall figures, while high for Singapore, are still extremely low.

Singapore reported a total of 93 deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic through Wednesday. Across the narrow Straits of Johor, neighbor Malaysia counted more than double that number on Wednesday alone.

Malaysia has reported 798 COVID-19 deaths per million residents since the start of the pandemic; Singapore fewer than 16.

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the wealthy Southeast Asian nation of 5.5 million people tacitly conceded that reducing cases to zero was not a possible long-term solution, and instead decided it could start a gradual return to everyday life



Better to read the full report at: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-p...5b5ba619d2