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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapor...oh-2159366

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


Singapore will attempt to do so without going into another phase of heightened alert, he said.

“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 caseload, 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 R 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.”