New Delhi: A new wave of COVID-19 is spreading in Singapore and the number of weekly infections so far this year has risen to more than 28,000 in the last week of March. The current wave is reportedly driven by a mix of XBB subvariants of the coronavirus. However, the cases are mostly said to be mild.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Singapore has reported 22,98,689 confirmed cases and 1,722 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.
In February this year, Singapore removed the requirement for travelers who have not been fully vaccinated to show COVID-19 test results or buy coronavirus travel insurance.
The country’s health ministry had also announced that there would be no need to wear masks on public transport. The authorities had lowered the outbreak response level of the disease from ‘yellow’ to ‘green’, indicating that Covid-19 is no longer a threat.
Since April last year, Singapore lifted most of its Covid-19 restrictions with many international events returning to the city-state, attracting tourists and businesses.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said last week that they had recorded more than 2.9 million arrivals in the first three months of this year.
Indian residents were the fourth largest source of tourist arrivals in the first quarter after Indonesians (523,300), Malaysians (278,910), and Australians (265,730). Americans made up the fifth largest group of visitors at 168,960 by country of origin.
Early last month, the Singapore government said in a review of its pandemic response that it had better managed disease outbreaks through overcrowded dormitories housing foreign workers, border measures and contact tracing, and endemic Covid-19 infections. Could have done
These were among the findings of a white paper on the government’s review of its pandemic response published by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Covid-19 was ‘a very complex and wicked problem on a massive scale’, requiring the government to operate in the ‘fog of war’.
“We made our best judgment at the time, but of course, with the benefit of what we know today, we probably could have handled some situations differently,” he said.