Covid-19 crisis How to deal with the spike in covid infections

Dear Minister,

I suggest that we stop sending out SMS based on the Safe Entry data (which is mostly unreliable) but continue to send out based on the Trace Together data (which is more reliable). I expect that this will reduce the testing significantly.

During the past 7 days, according to data from the Worldometer site, Singapore is showing10 times the number of cases per million of population, compared to the global average.  

We show 3.2 times the number of cases compared to Australia pro rata to population, and have the same death rate. I use Australia for comparison because both countries have adopted a similar strategy of zero covid, and are now moving towards "living with covid".

98% of the cases detected by our mass testing are mild. If we do not send out SMS for the safe entry data, we will get rid of the heavy testing workload, and the follow up isolation (which is causing a lot of concern, disruption to daily lives and strain on medical resources).

A small percentage of these undetected cases will become more severe, but they will be captured later when the infected people feel unwell and see the doctor. 

There will be an increased spread to the vulnerable population, but we have to accept this outcome. I believe that it will not be catastrophic, due to our high vaccination rate. Most of the deaths are of people who are already very sick from other conditions.

The high number of new cases are causing a lot of panic among the people in my chat groups and the public at large. Some are projecting 10,000 cases a day and a few project even higher numbers.

I have watched the Straits Times interviews with Prof Ooi of Duke NUS (two interviews) and Prof Dale Fisher, consultant to NUH. I agree with their expert analysis of the data and their reasoning.  

My views are similar to these experts. They said that the covid is less dangerous today compared to a year ago. They also said that it is already quite widespread in the community, but in a mild form.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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