Singapore Changi Covid-19 Cluster Exploding

Singapore’s Changi found a cluster of Covid-19 infections among the cleaning staff (read more here) and decided to retest all the 9,000 or so airport employees.

The airport also closed the shopping center called Jewel that the non-traveling public could access and most open F&B outlets. There are now 46 cases, an overall small number compared to many countries outside of Asia, related to what took place at the airport.

Here’s an excerpt from the Straits Times:

The Changi Airport cluster has become the largest active Covid-19 cluster on Thursday (May 13) with a total of 46 cases confirmed.

The second largest Tan Tock Seng Hospital cluster has 44 linked cases.

Of the 19 new cases linked to the airport cluster, most are airport workers or their household contacts.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has risen from 48 in the week before to 71 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from seven in the week before to 15 in the past week.

The Covid-19 numbers are very low in Singapore albeit no zero.

Singapore enters mini lockdown per Channelnewsasia:

The current size of group gatherings allowed will be reduced from five people to two people, following a spike in COVID-19 community cases, said Minister for Education Lawrence Wong on Friday (May 14).

This, and other new measures under what the Health Ministry labelled as “Phase 2 (Heightened Alert)” will take effect from May 16 through Jun 13.

DINING-IN SUSPENDED, WORK-FROM-HOME AS DEFAULT

Dining-in at F&B establishments will also not be allowed, said Mr Wong. This includes hawker centres and food courts, both indoors and outdoors.

“All dining-in will have to cease … All F&B establishments will only be able to offer takeaway and delivery options. In line with this, wedding banquets will also have to cease because it’s a dining activity.”

Working from home will also be the default at workplaces, he added. “All employees who are able to work from home will have to do so. Work-from-home will be the default.”

Conclusion

Only so much a government can do unless they decide to close the entire city to prevent the virus from spreading.

The numbers in Singapore are minimal compared to many other countries, but significant considering all the Travel Bubbles that the city-state has been thinking of forming with countries such as Hong Kong (let’s see if it burst), Australia, and New Zealand.

IMHO, you need to accept a small number of Covid-19 cases, including deaths, because it seems unlikely that we can suppress the virus entirely, but rather learn to live with it when the pandemic transforms itself to a manageable endemic.