Covid-19 crisis Classification of new cases

The government publishes a breakdown of statistics of new cases - showing the number that are imported, community linked, community unlinked and dormitory.

This gave the impression that some types of transmissions are more serious than others. 

Some people are worried about the unlinked cases or the imported cases. 

My common sense tells me that all of these cases are about the same. There is no reason to believe that one source is more harmful than the others.

Anyway, the classification is probably not reliable.

There is a different classification that is more important. We need to distinguish between mild cases and more serious cases. 

The mild cases have low viral load and are usually asymptomatic. The serious cases are symptomatic, have heavy viral load and need hospital treatment.

If the government can publish this differentiation, it will reduce the panic that is caused by an increase in new cases.

There is no need to panic when the new cases are largely mild. 

We need to worry only when they are serious.

Tan Kin Lian



 

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