Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung said in parliament yesterday (1 August) that about 60% of the population in Singapore has had Covid-19, based on blood samples from routine polyclinic cases.

He said that this doesn’t confer us herd immunity, and that by and large, scientists do not think herd immunity is achievable.

Snippets from Ong Ye Kung’s statement

“We are still in the middle of an infection wave driven by the Omicron variant BA.5. But, over the last 10 days, infection numbers have been falling and the week-on-week ratio has dipped below 0.9 over the last week. We should see the wave subsiding further this week.”

“We did not tighten any social restrictions during this current wave. Everyone went about their lives normally – going to work, visiting family members, going out with friends, and travelling in and out of Singapore.”

“However, life is not as normal in our hospitals. Without additional social restrictions, our healthcare system is bearing the brunt of the current infection wave. Healthcare workers have been very busy. Polyclinics and our General Practitioner clinics also saw higher patient volumes.”

“In such a situation, the key is to ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed, and that those who need urgent care can be attended to promptly. By and large, we have been able to achieve that.”

“The first important measure we took is to set aside sufficient bed capacity to cater to COVID-19 patients. So, in response to Mr Louis Chua, based on our worst-case scenario projection for the current wave, we have plans to set aside up to about 1,000 COVID-19 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.”

“This is a dynamic plan, and fortunately, in the course of this infection wave, we did not have to activate all of those beds.”

“On record, we have about 1.7 million reported cases, which is about 30% of our population. The Ministry of Health (MOH) also systematically monitors blood samples from routine polyclinic cases and other healthy volunteers for signs of previous infection. From these samples, we estimate about 60% of local residents are likely to have been infected with COVID-19.”

“Notwithstanding, this does not confer us ‘herd immunity’. By and large, scientists around the world do not think herd immunity is achievable because the virus will continue to mutate, escape the protection of vaccines, and then infect people.”

“What is achievable is “population protection against severe illness”, through vaccinations. This is what enables our healthcare system to weather through an infection wave, even with high case numbers, because the translation of case numbers into severe illnesses is very low.”

Source: moh.gov.sg

According to an article by Pink News, ParkRoyal Pickering hotel located in Singapore’s Central area has made an apology to a same gender couple who wrote in to them to enquire about wedding ceremonies.

This was after one of their employees had earlier responded to the couple’s email by saying:

“I am sorry to inform you that the hotel does not allow same-gender couples to have wedding ceremony and celebration due to the regulation.”

Screenshot of reply was shared by couple online

The couple in the said article then shared the reply by the hotel on an app called Prout, which is quite popular among same gender couples in Singapore.

The post went viral, garnering comments from many members of the community and almost 2.4k likes as seen at the time of writing.

Parkroyal Pickering apologised to the couple

A day later, Parkroyal Pickering hotel took to their Instagram page to apologise to the couple.

It read:

“Thank you for your patience as we seek to understand this unfortunate mistake and misinformation from one of our team members at PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering.

We are an inclusive hotel, and we are truly sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience this may have caused.

We have since reached out to the couple and will do our best to assist them with their special occasion at our hotel.”

General Manager (GM) of the hotel in response to media queries said that as soon as the hotel’s management got notice of the reply which was sent out to the couple, they investigated the matter immediately as the reply was not in line with the hotel’s position to the same gender matter.

The GM further explained that the staff which replied the couple had made a mistake assuming that the law did not allow this without checking with the head of department.

Couple accepted apology

The couple eventually accepted the apology but opted not to hold their ceremony there.

They issued a joint statement and signed it off together.

The statement reads:

“We thank the Parkroyal Pickering for publicly and privately apologising to us.

We hope that other hotels will be inspired by the Parkroyal Pickering and reconsider their own policies and communications towards allowing same-gender couples to hold their celebrations there.”

Laws in Singapore regarding same gender marriages

Current laws in Singapore do not recognise same-gender marriages but there is no specific law in place stopping people from having their own private celebrations.

There are also no laws in Singapore that stops establishments to from hosting events of these nature.

Image source: Google Maps/Unsplash

People in Singapore are spending more money but their salaries are not keeping up, according to analysts from DBS Bank, who crunched the date from 1.2 million customers.

The ratio of expenses to income increased to 64% this May from 59% last year.

During the same period, 40% of the sample size saw income growth of less than 5% through May, but consumer prices grew by 5.6%, more than their income growth.

According to the analysts, low-income groups are seeing their expenses grow at a rate of 5.6 times faster than their income, explaining why the government has prioritised providing relief to households that are more vulnerable.

A senior economist at DBS, Irvin Seah, said that “From a policy standpoint, having a strong Sing dollar definitely will help”.

The monetary policy has also been tightened 4 times by the MAS since last year, with fiscal packages providing relief on the lower end.

However, Seah added that “it is really down to the responsibility of the individual to manage their finances” to offset the impact of global inflation.

All is not doom and gloom though, with DBS analysts seeing signs of upward mobility, with about 23% of those form the lowest income group, moving on to the next highest income bracket os $2500 to $4999.

According to an article by Bangkok Post, Singapore hotel room rates have hit the highest rates in the past 6 years after the tourism industry picked up following the easing of pandemic restrictions by the Singapore Government.

Based on the data provided by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the average rate for hotel rooms in Singapore in June hit a daily rate of around SGD 238.32.

This was the highest recorded hotel room rate since September 2016 and in terms of percentage, it marked a 63% increase in price compared to a year back when pandemic measures were still in force.

First few countries to end testing for inbound travelers

Singapore is also one of the first few countries in the world to announce that they will remove testing for all inbound travelers so long as the individual has been vaccinated.

With the easing of measures, conferences and large scale events were slowly allowed to be held which attracted more visitors to the island country which in turn caused more hotel rooms to be booked.

Data from the STB showed that in the first half of 2022, the amount of arrivals as compared to a year ago increase by 12 fold.

STB also mentions that Singapore is expected to welcome around 4 million to 6 million visitors in 2022.

Image source: Unsplash