Singapore’s post-lockdown coronavirus surge sparks fears of new breakouts
A sharp rise in new infections in Singapore has led to fresh concerns over the potential for the coronavirus to surge again once lockdown measures have been eased.
Following the initial outbreak in China, Singapore was hit hard by Covid-19, but was widely applauded for quickly stemming the spread of the virus through strict surveillance and quarantine.
But Singapore confirmed 142 new cases on Wednesday – a record for a single day in the country – with a seventh fatality also reported.
The increase, as of Thursday morning, takes the total number of cases in the country to 1,623, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Gan Kim Yong, minister of health, admitted: “The trend is particularly concerning in the past week.”
The new wave of cases in the international financial centre, many with no links to confirmed cases, has been attributed to foreign workers.
Singapore has come under fire after it was reported that it was putting 20,000 migrant workers under quarantine in two dormitories, designated as “isolation areas”.
“The fact that thousands are now under quarantine in extremely close proximity could be a recipe for disaster, unless their basic rights are respected,” Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty International’s Singapore Researcher, said.
The rise in new infections will come as a concern to Austria, Czech Republic and Denmark as the first European countries set to relax lockdown measures.
Singapore has quickly moved to tackle the increase in locally transmitted infections by passing a bill to prohibit social gatherings of any size in public or private spaces with individuals who do not live inside the same household.
Those who fail to adhere could be handed a fine of up to S$10,000 (£5,650) and/or a jail sentence up to six months, while the punishment for repeat offenders will be doubled.
The example of Singapore illustrates the difficulty globally as countries weigh up the logistics surrounding the desire to ease lockdown measures in order to help economic recovery without risking further major outbreaks.
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday that the country was moving closer to relaxing measures.
“The curve is starting to decline and stabilise and the number of infections is decreasing,” Conte told the BBC. “So probably, if scientists confirm it, we will relax some measures by the end of this month.”
While a Spanish government spokesperson revealed on Wednesday the prospect of also reducing measures by the end of the month, before a colleague rejected that possibility, emphasising the country remained in a “difficult phase”.
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