Half of Singapore’s coronavirus cases show no symptoms, joint head of task force says
- ‘Based on our experience, for every symptomatic case you would have at least one asymptomatic case,’ Lawrence Wong said
- Wong was explaining the city state’s cautious approach to reopening following a two-month lockdown to curb infections
Singapore has one of the highest infection tallies in Asia, with more than 38,000 cases, because of outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing thousands of migrant workers.
It reopened schools and some businesses last week after a near two-month lockdown, but many residents are still required to work from home and mix socially only with their families.
“Based on our experience, for every symptomatic case you would have at least one asymptomatic case,” said Lawrence Wong, adding that the discovery was made in recent weeks as Singapore ramped up testing. “That is exactly why we have been very cautious in our reopening plans.”
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Half of Singapore’s coronavirus cases show no symptoms, co-head of task force says
Singapore has not previously disclosed how many asymptomatic cases it has recorded. Wong did not reveal the number of asymptomatic cases in Singapore, which has reported 6,294 infections in the last two weeks, mainly among migrant workers.
China said 300 symptomless Covid-19 carriers in its central city of Wuhan, the pandemic epicentre, had not been found to be infectious. But some experts say asymptomatic infections are common, making for a huge challenge in controlling the disease as countries start exiting lockdowns.
Wong said that while asymptomatic individuals had fewer opportunities to spread the virus as they were not coughing or sneezing, there have been cases of asymptomatic transmission in Singapore, especially between patients living in close quarters.
“People have commented – why are we not reopening the economy faster?” Wong said. “We have to take a more cautious approach. There are still asymptomatic cases which we may not have detected circulating in the community.”