Coronavirus: Singapore case spike tests reopening resolve as city state to ‘swap’ 500,000 vaccine doses with Australia

As of Monday, Singapore had reported more than 100 new cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 infections for seven days in a row

Elsewhere, Japan’s health ministry said foreign matter recently found in Moderna Covid-19 vaccines was likely bits of rubber stopper from the vials

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Children wearing face masks play around jade rabbit lantern installations in Singapore on Monday, the seventh consecutive day of more than 100 locally transmitted Covid-19 infections in the city state. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:41pm, 31 Aug 2021Updated: 6:49pm, 31 Aug 2021

Singapore’s count of daily coronavirus cases remained above 100 for the seventh consecutive day amid a surge in clusters at bus depots, testing its resolve to use one of the world’s best vaccination rates to continue reopening the economy.

The city state reported 147 new cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 infections on Monday, according to data released by the Health Ministry. That level, about 26 cases per million people, is high for Singapore though well below levels seen in neighbours such as Malaysia and Thailand.

Adding to the rise in recent days are Covid-19 clusters that have been found at eight local bus depots, totalling 229 cases, according to Health Ministry data compiled by Bloomberg.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong receives his first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in January. Singapore is set to send 500,000 doses of the vaccine to Australia. Photo: EPA

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a speech on Sunday said it is no longer possible to reduce Covid-19 cases to zero, even if the country locks down for a long time, adding that it will reopen “cautiously and progressively”.

Lee said that while cases have risen in recent days, the number of “seriously ill” cases is stable. “It is important to maintain this, so that we can continue to ease up, and especially to reconnect Singapore with the rest of the world,” he said.

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