A key strategy in our COVID-19 battle is regular testing. With the recent cases at markets and food centres, residents living near some of the hotter spots can collect Antigen Rapid Test kits to test themselves.
Visited the collection points at Teck Ghee and Cheng San today. Many residents were there to get their kits. Some told me they wanted to make sure they and their families were OK. Glad they are doing their part to protect themselves and the community.
Unfortunately, the KTV and Jurong Fishery Port clusters have spread to many markets and food centres. That is why the Multi-Ministry Taskforce announced this afternoon that we will revert to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) from this Thursday, 22 July, until 18 August. Dining-in will again cease and group sizes will be limited to 2 people (https://str.sg/33Y9).
This retightening will help slow the spread of cases. We hope to avoid multiple subclusters breaking out around each market and food centre, like what happened around the Bukit Merah View Market. It will buy us time to get more people fully vaccinated, especially not yet vaccinated seniors, who are most at risk.
We are all disappointed by this step back, but COVID-19 is a formidable foe. We have to feel our way forward, and be prepared for setbacks along the way.
Overall we are making good progress. Three quarters of us have had at least our first jab, while half have completed both jabs. We are much safer now than six months ago. In 4 weeks’ time, if all goes well, our vaccination coverage should be much higher, and we should be able to relax the measures. We are not quite in the new normal yet, but steadily getting there. – LHL
