Explainer | Can Singapore’s health care system cope with its biggest surge in Covid-19 infections?
- Singapore hit a record 5,000 daily coronavirus cases last week, as hospitals face a shortage of ICU beds and staff after a rise in resignations
- Even as it opens up its borders and risks more infections, its vaccination rate is among the world’s highest and officials say they can increase ICU capacity
The Health Ministry described this as an “unusual surge” and while cases have since fallen to hover around the 3,000 range, authorities are cautiously watching the number of serious infections that require treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU).
To try to ease the strain on the system, Singapore has maintained strict domestic restrictions that limit social gatherings to two people until at least late November. Yet, it is soldiering on with its plans to reopen borders, in a bid to regain its global aviation hub status. It has started allowing vaccinated travellers to leave and enter freely on quarantine-free travel lanes with 10 countries, including the United States and Britain, and would expand the list to include South Korea, Australia and Switzerland later this month.
What caused Singapore’s high daily caseload?
As of Monday, November 1, Singapore has recorded more than 200,000 cases since the start of the pandemic. Almost half of them were reported in October alone, evidence of how the more-contagious Delta variant has spread throughout the community.
Compared to the other variants, Delta appears to create more viral material and there is also prolonged shedding by those infected, according to Leo Yee Sin, the executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.