Singapore has been hit hard by the B1617 variant from India in its present wave of Covid-19 infection. School children which were largely unaffected last year are getting infected. Even those under 12 which they are ineligible for vaccination are suddenly becoming vulnerable. While finger pointing, defending previous efforts when damage already done won't solve the problem, contribution of solutions would.
The 2 most dangerous place to be infected with virus are hospital and school. Hospital is a place whereby patient with medical conditions being warded and seek treatment. Being infected with virus not just disrupt the nation healthcare system but also raise the possibility of fatality rate. The virus itself might not be lethal to kill them directly but indirectly they could die due to complication. School is a place full of children at a age whereby they are ineligible for vaccination. Without vaccination, they do not get the protection just like fully vaccinated fully. They only left with their not fully developed immune system to combat the virus. Last year, the nation was lucky enough that none of those 2 places being infected. However, now we have both the places taking serious hit. Not just 1 hospital but a few, not just 1 school but a few.
From the look of the situation which the Government already acknowledged it as being critical, a better solution than the current ad hoc approach would be to lockdown the nation and perform swab test to all the people including those vaccinated. It is then we could get the exact figure of how many actually infected, uncover hidden cases, isolate them and contain the further spreading. Other countries can swab a whole city with a population size larger than Singapore within 3 months, there is no reason Singapore cannot do it within a month. A month of lockdown is not something new to the nation as we have experienced that last year.
Never heard of the phrase 长痛不如短痛 ? Stomach the pain from the temporary lockdown, swab everybody. This not just help to contain further spreading but at the same time brings back the confident to the people, give them a sense of security and calm their anger.
As mentioned in The Many Questions About Covid-19 Vaccine, the Covid-19 virus has mutated at a rate fastest that we've never seen before during the 2003 SARS, 2009 Swine Flu and 2012 MERS. Whatever approaches being used in the past might not be as effective as before in containing the pandemic. Even the herd immunity via the vaccination approach is questionable given the rapid mutation rate.
The mass screening and swab testing is not some new approach to contain the infection when cases suddenly spike in an alarming rate. South Korea did that in 2020 to its city Daegu having a population of 2.5M. In the early days of the outbreak, the health officials treated each of the case more or less individually with the help of contact tracing. Something similar to what Singapore is doing -- tested positive, contact trace to linked cases and treated them. The South Korean Government then decided to take a bold step to quarantining everyone in the region of infection and perform aggressive testing. In a month time, they managed to contain the infection in the city.
Singapore though is a country but given its land area and population size, it is not much different from a city of those big nations. Instead of waiting for the virus to get to you, we get to them first by swab testing all.
The outbreak in India in April was the first warning signal. The cluster formed in TTSH, Changi Airport and subsequently three schools (EdgeField Secondary School, Victoria Junior College and Yio Chu Kang Primary School) were detected with students being infected was the second warning sign. Are we going to wait for the third before starting to act ? Miss the timing to do that, things could just get worse.
Singapore Covid-19
主将无能垮三军
左士缺策只砸钱
右士辱人自被辱
左象无计只会泣
右象理人理出祸
左马略识色不分
右马讲据终慢拍
小卒仗权乱闹事
大敌当前夸本领
火烧眉头方才悟
城门紧闭称闭窗
高傲自大多借口
知错不认真懦夫
领导者最佳战友
为何小红点缺乏
是否无勇气拥有
是否缺远见拥有
是否不知怎拥有
还是不想去拥有
