Coronavirus: Singapore probes New Year’s Eve ‘superspreading’ street party; Indonesia to begin booster shots
- Hundreds of revellers gathered in Clarke Quay, potentially spreading Covid-19, says Singapore government; only groups of five are allowed to meet
- Elsewhere, South Korea reports its first Omicron deaths and Japan finds highest number of new coronavirus cases in almost three months
The government task force managing the Covid-19 situation said the gathering “involved some blatant breaches of safe management rules and is a potential superspreading event”.
The unauthorised party of hundreds – Singapore rules cap group sizes at just five – was widely shared on social media. In pictures and video, the crowd could be seen cheering, singing and counting down to the new year, many with their masks pulled down.
Omicron infections in Singapore have begun to creep up, now making up around 17 per cent of local cases and suggesting a wave of this variant is coming, health minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.
At the same time, ICU numbers are the lowest in the last quarter and active local cases over the past week are a fraction of what they were at the peak, he said. All these signal the delta variant wave has subsided, at least for now, Ong added. He reiterated that vaccination and boosters remain the key response.
Indonesia to start booster programme
Health workers were given booster doses in July and the plan now is to cover all adults who took their second shots over six months ago. Some 21 million will be covered under the booster programme this month, Budi said.