Coronavirus: Singapore says herd immunity is ‘too big a price’ to contain pandemic

Herd immunity is established if enough people in a community develop immunity through prior illness or vaccination

The government plans to bolster its testing capacity fivefold, from about 8,000 to as many as 40,000 tests a day by later this year

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A hairdresser wearing a protective mask and a face shield checks the temperature of customers at a hair salon in Singapore. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:34am, 13 May 2020Updated: 9:56am, 13 May 2020

Singapore has rejected “herd immunity” as a strategy in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and signalled it instead will continue to contain transmission until a vaccine is ready.

“It’s too big a price for us to pay,” Kenneth Mak, the health ministry’s director of medical services, said at a briefing on Tuesday. “Even though we have taken many steps to prepare for surges, to expand our capability, it can easily be overwhelmed with a strategy of moving toward herd immunity.”

With new cases continuing to climb by hundreds each day, the city state is opting for a more aggressive testing strategy that pivots from selectively screening those with symptoms of the coronavirus. The government already plans to bolster its testing capacity fivefold, from about 8,000 to as many as 40,000 tests a day by later this year.

The government announced its expanded testing plan as it seeks to reopen an economy that has been hammered by the ongoing partial lockdown. Some workplaces and services, including hair salons, laundromats and pet food shops were allowed to resume operations on Tuesday, while certain groups of students will be allowed to return to school next week.

More than 80 per cent of Singapore’s workforce has been working from home after the government implemented “circuit-breaker” measures, including closing schools and most workplaces, in early April.

So-called herd immunity is established if enough people in a community develop immunity through prior illness or vaccination. Researchers would have to develop a vaccine that proves safe and effective against the coronavirus, and health authorities would have to get it to a sufficient number of people.

Achieving “herd immunity through natural infection is going to be very difficult and will result in large numbers of infections and complications,” Vernon Lee, the ministry’s director of communicable diseases, said at the briefing. “We will have to wait for a viable vaccine to come out.”

While the number of cases in the wider community continues to come down, an outbreak among low-wage migrant workers staying in cramped dormitories has led Singapore to record one of the largest virus tallies in Asia. On Tuesday the health ministry confirmed 884 new cases, the “vast majority” of them in the dorms, pushing the total to more than 24,000.