Covid-19 crisis Live with the virus
A well respected international expert on infectious disease, said that we have to live with the virus. It is not possible to eradicate it completely. The priority is to protect those who are vulnerable.

I agree with his view.

The strategy adopted in Singapore over the past 15 months is to put in great effort to locate every infected case and to isolate the infected people to prevent the spread of the virus. 

If an infected person visits a mall or market, the premises were closed for a few days for total cleaning and disinfection.

Tremendous effort is spent on safe entry recording and contact tracing. Several tens of thousand workers were employed to carry out this task.

I believe that this strategy has to be changed. Apart from the direct cost incurred by the government, this strategy also cause many individuals and business to lose a large part of their earnings. 

Most of the infections turn out to be mild anyway.

As a large proportion of the population has already been vaccinated with one or two doses, the harm from the virus will reduce.

If we accept the strategy to "live with the virus", we do not need to put in all efforts to eradicate the virus. We know that it will spread, but it will not cause much harm, as long as infection is mild.

It may cause harm to some vulnerable people, we can treat them when it occurs.

We can relax the strict restrictions and allow live to return to normal.

Tan Kin Lian

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