After A Month of Relaxed SOPs, Singapore Goes Back To Phase 2 With 861 Cases

On 21 June, the Singaporean government relaxed some of their Covid-19 restrictions to allow dine-in and the reopening of gyms and fitness centres, reported Straits Times. KTV lounges that were under the entertainment sector were given a chance to operate as food and beverage outlets, reported CNA. However, it was mentioned by Bloomberg that some of these KTV lounges operated as F&B outlets while offering “clandestine/illegal services” on the side.

After the reopening, the number of cases was relatively low and they even reached 0 community cases on 10 July. However, that was the calm before the storm as they proceeded to record 8 cases on 12 July, 56 on 14 July and 182 on 20 July.

On 22 July, they will be reverting their SOPs to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) as they are currently experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases due to the emergence of new community clusters.

So how did this come to be? 

Singapore’s Ministry of Health first detected the KTV cluster on 12 July which grew over time. As of 20 July, the KTV lounges cluster has caused 207 cases. The Minister of Health, Mr Ong Ye Kung has said in a Facebook post that the KTV cluster seems to be settling down but on the other hand, the Jurong Fishery Port cluster has been expanding exponentially. Other than that, he has also said that both the clusters are linked.

The Jurong Fishery Port (JFP) cluster is said to encompass fishery ports, wet markets and hawker centres. MOH’s director of medical services Kenneth Mak has said that through genetic testing, they have identified the Delta variant in the infected cases and it is similar to the one that is in Indonesia. Hence, they have come to the conclusion that the virus was brought in by infected fishermen from Indonesia or other countries. The JFP cluster currently has 321 cases.

Phase 2 (Heightened Alert)

With this spike, the MOH in Singapore has announced that they will need to revert back to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) and this period is said to last between 22 July till 18 August. There will be no dine-ins and social gatherings are restricted to only a maximum of two people, according to MOH.

This is certainly very frightening as it shows how transmissible the delta variant is and that even a slight slip up could cause a massive chain effect. We should definitely take this as a lesson and abide by the SOPs no matter where or when even when vaccinated.

Also read: Brunei Records 434 Days Without Local Transmission While M’sia Records New High Of 13,215 Cases