Singapore not expected to move out of Phase 3 'anytime soon': Janil Puthucheary
The Government does not expect Singapore to move out of the third phase of its post-circuit breaker COVID-19 reopening "anytime soon", said Senior Minister of State
People wearing masks at Orchard Road, Singapore. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
- The Government does not expect Singapore to move out of the third phase of its post-circuit breaker COVID-19
- reopening "anytime soon", said Senior Minister of State
- Health Janil Puthucheary on Thursday (Feb 25).
"Phase 3 is a new normal which will last until such time when there is evidence on vaccine effectiveness in preventing future outbreaks, a substantial proportion of the population is vaccinated, and the rest of the world also has the virus under control," said Dr Puthucheary in Parliament, in response to a question from Member of Parliament (MP) Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang).
Since Singapore entered Phase 3 on Dec 28 last year, there has been an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks in many countries as well as the emergence of more easily transmitted variants of the virus, he said.
He pointed out Singapore had faced an increase in the number of unlinked cases and community clusters several weeks ago, and as such had tightened community safe management measures and recalibrated the pace and scale at which activities were able to resume, even within Phase 3.
Dr Puthucheary said that while vaccines approved for use here had been shown to be effective in providing protection against COVID-19, the authorities were still
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waiting for more evidence that they would also prevent transmission. He added that the effectiveness of the vaccines against new variants of the coronavirus was also being closely monitored.
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- The specifics of any particular variant would be in a "hypothetical space", he said.
- "The key point would be that we take reference from technical and professional advice,
- We are very grateful that we have a depth of technical and professional advice to advise us in fighting COVID-19," he said.
"Meanwhile, our best strategy is to continue to be disciplined about safe management measures, and achieve a high level of vaccination within our population to boost our collective immunity," he said, adding that Singapore has made "good progress" on its vaccination programme.
"We are continuing to bring in more vaccine supplies, and we encourage all eligible Singaporeans to take up the vaccines to protect themselves and others around them," he said.
