Singapore-When Singapore, with the support of one of the world's leading vaccine programs, began to implement a strategy to deal with COVID-19, the infection rate in this wealthy city-state soared, which made many people question whether the timing was right .

However, as the numbers are now falling as rapidly as they are rising, people are cautiously optimistic that even if new and worrying variants of omicron are discovered, this widely-watched plan has helped Singapore turn the tide of the pandemic and allow People better understand what is effective and what is not.

"I think COVID seems to be just a common flu for everyone now," Glacier Chong said, taking a break from shopping on Singapore’s popular Orchard Road, to watching people by the fountain and listening to the lining of large speakers. Christmas music street.

"Everyone is getting used to it; if you are infected with COVID, this seems to be the norm now. COVID seems to be a curable disease."

Part of this confidence comes from figures provided by Singapore.

94% of eligible people have been vaccinated, and 26% have been vaccinated with booster shots. Even if the number of infections starts to increase, about 99% of people have no symptoms or only mild symptoms, which means that the healthcare system is under pressure. Not overwhelmed. The death toll has increased, but it is still very low, and most of them are elderly people with underlying diseases, and a disproportionate of them have not been vaccinated.

By ensuring that there are few barriers to vaccination, Singapore has increased the difficulties of unvaccinated people-such as banning them from eating in restaurants or going to shopping malls-and the general confidence in the government and its government, thus successfully getting so many people vaccinated. vaccine. Said Alex Cook, an infectious disease modeling and statistics expert at the Suriford School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.

"Perhaps the main lesson learned from Singapore is to make vaccination easy, not hard," he said.

In the early stages of the pandemic, major commercial and trade centers in Southeast Asia implemented tough "circuit breaker" lockdowns to limit the spread of coronavirus cases to single digits or low double digits in the past year.

With vaccinations in full swing, active testing and tracking programs, and strict health and safety guidelines, this country of 5.5 million people began what it calls "a transitional journey to a country that is resilient to COVID-19" in August. Full of confidence. "

This is part of the decision to begin to treat COVID-19 as an endemic disease, admitting that reducing the number of cases to zero is impossible in the long run, and now is the time to slowly return people and businesses to their normal lives again.

In addition to the widely vaccinated population, Singapore has calculated that its testing is comprehensive enough to quickly identify and isolate new outbreak clusters, and its healthcare system is capable of handling any more serious cases.

The highly spreadable delta variant put the plan in trouble, and the government again tightened some lockdown measures in September, such as reducing the number of people at social gatherings and dining in restaurants.

By the end of October, Singapore's 7-day rolling average reached nearly 700 cases per million people, which is by far the most severe case in the entire pandemic.

This week it dropped to 258 parts per million; it is still much higher than the most severe peak at the beginning of the outbreak in 2020, but it is showing a clear downward trend. In absolute numbers, its peak is more than 5,300 infections per day, and it is now less than 1,000.

According to our data world, the death toll reached the peak of the 7-day rolling average on November 10, at 2.57 per million people, and is now slightly higher than 1.

In contrast, in the recent surge, neighbouring Malaysia reached a peak of 12.71 deaths per million in September. It has also seen these numbers drop sharply and are now roughly the same as Singapore, thanks to a campaign where nearly 80% of people are now fully vaccinated.

If there is an error, Cook said that at the end of August, mild or asymptomatic patients will be allowed to be isolated at home, rather than in hospitals or special facilities, because the number of cases has started to climb rapidly. He said that the purpose of doing so was to reduce the pressure on the healthcare system, but the result has led to the rapid spread of the virus in the community.

"For future outbreaks of similar dangerous viruses, countries should seriously consider the smart way to allow infected patients to recover at home, no matter how mild their symptoms are," he said.

Since then, the restrictions have been relaxed again, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday that with the emergence of omicron variants, the relaxation may require a rollback, and that Singaporeans must prepare for the "more bumps" brought about by the virus to evolve.

"We are likely to be forced to take a few steps back again before we can take more steps forward," he said. "But despite this, I believe that eventually we will find a way to coexist with the virus and safely restore everything we like to do."

First, Health Minister Wang Yikang announced on Tuesday that it will postpone more reopening measures when evaluating omicron variants and increasing testing for travelers and frontline staff.

However, the country continued on Monday, partially reopening the Causeway Bridge connecting Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia, which has been closed for nearly two years.

On Orchard Road, housewife Lee Ching Yee said the emergence of the omicron variant is worrying because the youngest two of her three children have not yet been vaccinated.

Despite this, she still believes that a quick shopping trip with her family is safe enough to choose a new Apple watch for her 12-year-old daughter as a reward for her recent exam results.

"We go to the store and have dinner outside because we can eat in groups of five," she said. "But for safety reasons, we are looking for an open air place. You have to weigh the pros and cons."

Cook said that with such preventive measures and high vaccination rates, Singapore is still able to cope with the emergence of new variants, which is expected.

He said: “As long as vaccination still provides strong protection against serious diseases, I would not expect the emergence of new variants to lead to a fundamental rethinking of strategies for coexistence with COVID.”

Her boyfriend Marcus Yeo and Glacier Chong are sitting by the fountain along Orchard Road. He said that based on Singapore's track record so far, he is not too worried about the appearance of omicron.

"This variant is still unknown to us," he said. "But looking at how we grew up from the delta variant stage, I think we will be fine."

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