Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung said on 27 January that the covid situation in Singapore has stabilised, with new daily cases remaining low despite the Chinese New Year holidays.
He was speaking at the official opening of the NTUC Health Jurong Spring nursing home at Jurong West Street 52.
He said that the recorded daily cases were in the low three-digits over the weekend, and fell to 78 cases on Monday.
This year’s Chinese New Year is the first holiday celebration since the restrictions were eased last year.
Ong said that there was also no spike in the number of reported infections after the CNY weekend, and that the number of cases went up to about 500 on Thursday but hospitals managed to hold their ground.
He said that “I know we no longer scrutinise (daily Covid-19) numbers like that, but over Chinese New Year, I looked at the numbers and the situation closely, and I think things are stabilised.”
He added that Singapore’s ageing population is the biggest social issue facing our generation and pointed out that many nursing homes have delayed their openings due to the pandemic.
As a result, there’s a bottleneck as hospital patients who need long term care can’t be discharged to nursing homes for their rehabilitation, and causing a crunch in hospitals and emergency departments – hence the importance of a synced healthcare ecosystem.
Ong also acknowledged the concerns that people have over China’s reopening and whether their increasing infections will affect Singapore.
He said that at present, there are about 38 flights a week between Singapore and China, meaning the imported cases coming from China are very low.
Over the past week, there had been no imported cases from China, and that the situation in Singapore is stable and the authorities are looking forward to even greater normalcy soon.