Covid-19 crisis Controlling the spread of the virus
I give my views on the useful measures and the useless measures to control the spread of the virus.

Here are the useful measures:

a) Trace Together tokens/ apps
b) Wear a mask in crowded places
c) Safe distancing 
d) Temperature taking

Here are the useless measures

a) Safe entry recording
b) Mandatory wearing of mask when outdoors
c) Recall of cruise ship due to one infected passenger.

I find the safe entry recording to be costly, inconvenient and totally useless. It is impossible to identify the contacted person and carry out contact tracing. 

If the safe entry recording is stopped, we can rely totally on the Trace Together app.

I am in favor of temperature taking. The sensors can be provided at many public places and do not need to be manned. Instructions should be given to the people to visit a special clinic if they have a temperature above 37.5%. The special clinic should be located in many convenient places and set up only to do the covid-19 testing. The tests should be given free to people with a temperature.

I prefer the focus on catching the symptomatic cases, i.e. people who are infected and have developed a fever. I do not worry about people who may be asymptomatic, as they are not likely to spread the virus. This is in accordance with an advisory from the World Health Organization.

Although asymptomatic people can spread the virus, the virus is likely to be mild in these cases. If the infection become serious, it will be captured in the temperature taking.

The risk in Singapore is low due to our hot and humid climate. This is not the same risk as in countries that are now approaching winter. The different levels of risks are borne by the national statistics.

I hope that the people in charge will now review our protocol towards controlling the spread of the virus.

We should discontinue the wasteful and useless activities, especially safe entry recording, and focus on the more effective ones - such as Trace Together and temperature scanning.

Agree or not?

Tan Kin Lian

 

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