Coronavirus: Singapore wary over easing circuit breaker ‘too early’, as cases hit 17,000

Officials say city state is ‘not out of the woods’, and that safe-distancing rules are likely to stay even after the partial lockdown ends

Meanwhile, the Singapore government has boosted efforts to handle the virus outbreak in migrant worker dormitories

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Singapore on April 14 made it compulsory for everyone to wear a mask in public places. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 7:55pm, 1 May 2020Updated: 11:50pm, 1 May 2020

Singapore on Friday sought to temper expectations that it would be easing its partial lockdown soon, with its health minister saying that the city state was “not out of the woods”.

The comments came a day after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a speech that he was considering a phased reopening of the economy, and as the island’s neighbours, including Malaysia and Vietnam, loosened movement restrictions.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on Friday said it was not just a “single number” that would be considered when deciding whether to lift its partial lockdown, but multiple factors.

“We have to look at the nature of the cases, whether the low number of cases is sustainable and the nature of the transmission, whether we have confidence that the transmission is under control,” he told reporters at a virtual press briefing.

“I think it is important for us to remind ourselves, even though we are seeing the number of community cases coming down, we are not out of the woods yet,” he said.

The basic posture has to be that we are in for a long fight. There will be recurring waves of infections that we have to deal with

Lawrence Wong, national development minister

Singapore recorded a dramatic explosion of cases within the past month, taking its tally of infections to more than 17,000. Some 86 per cent of its infections are low-wage migrant workers living in cramped dormitories, while cases among Singapore citizens and permanent residents have largely stabilised at a daily average of seven cases.

Gan said Singapore would need to move to a more “holistic risk assessment”, stressing that the country needed to focus “quite sharply” on efforts to keep community cases low before it could consider easing restrictions.