Coronavirus: Singapore jumps in Covid resilience ranking; deadliest day in South Korea

Singapore, which fell sharply after being ranked top in the Bloomberg index, has found an equilibrium of relatively open travel while maintaining domestic restrictions

Elsewhere, Australia’s New South Wales reported 5,715 new Covid-19 cases, a 52 per cent jump, and a record 109 died from the virus in South Korea

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People ride bicycles along the promenade at Marina Bay in Singapore, as the city state learns to live with the virus. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:35am, 23 Dec 2021Updated: 1:18pm, 23 Dec 2021

Singapore jumped 19 spots to No. 18 in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking in December as it moved past the most harrowing stage of its transition to living with the virus, though Omicron remains a key threat on the horizon.

In the last month of the year, infections and hospitalisation rates plummeted in the city state even as social and border restrictions were eased, after a Delta wave that made its way through the highly vaccinated population ebbed.

Daily cases declined to 335 as of December 22 after starting the month with 1,324 new infections, according to Ministry of Health data. The number of people in intensive care dropped to 23 from a peak of 75 on November 12, while those hospitalised fell by 72 per cent to 428 over the same period, reducing the load on the health care system.

The Southeast Asian business hub had to endure a few bruising months to reach this stage, with the death toll rising at a stunning pace for a city that practised zero-tolerance towards Covid-19 for nearly two years. Several sputtering cycles of easing and intensifying curbs marred its efforts to treat the virus as endemic, generating division and frustration on the ground.

Singapore, a former No. 1 on the Ranking in April 2020, now seems to have found an equilibrium of relatively open travel while maintaining conservative measures domestically. Quarantine-free travel was opened up to 24 destinations, including the US and many parts of Europe and Asia, giving a boost to its trade-reliant economy, but residents cannot gather in bigger groups than five locally and entertainment options remain limited.

With Western economies awash in Omicron, Singapore’s travel lanes are presenting a key risk as travellers return from winter holidays. Officials have suspended new ticket sales between December 23 and January 20 for quarantine-free travel as it tries to manage a wave of returnees with Omicron.