However,after keeping the virus largely at bay in the community since late last year and giving more than 20 per cent of its residents at least one shot of a vaccine,even Singapore has not been immune to the new wave of COVID-19 gripping the region.
Its numbers are tiny compared to those in neighbouring Malaysia,Thailand and Cambodia,which had avoided the worst of the virus but have been hit by swelling cases in the past month.
However,the potential implications are significant for a country intent on opening up as quickly as it can and convincing Australia,as a “low risk” nation,to establish a travel channel without the need for quarantine.
Singapore Education Minister Lawrence Wong,who co-chairs the ministerial taskforce on COVID-19,said 40 local cases connected to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in central Singapore since last Wednesday and the emergence of mutant variants from India,as well as South Africa,Britain,Brazil were of sufficient concern to wind back freedoms. Five of the cases were connected to the Indian variant.
The city state is not returning to lockdown,or a “circuit breaker” as it was dubbed by the government in April 2020 when there was a peak of more than 1000 new cases a day. But late on Tuesday it announced changes such as the closure of gyms,a reduction of the limit on social gatherings from eight to five and a 21-day quarantine for inbound travellers from most countries.
That does not include Australians,who like arrivals from Brunei,China,Hong Kong,New Zealand and Taiwan only have to isolate until they’ve tested negative.