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As Singapore entered its Stabilisation Phase on Sep. 27, a number of safe management measures were announced to slow down community transmission and to minimise the strain on Singapore's overall healthcare capacity.

These measures include capping the number of people allowed for social gatherings and dine-in at two as well as having work from home as default.

The Stabilisation Phase was initially expected to end on Oct. 24.

The Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) announced on Oct. 20 that it will be extended till Nov. 21, 2021 as more time is needed for the situation to stabilise.

According to the press release, the measures will be reviewed at "the two-week mark" and adjusted based on the community situation then.

Three positive trends

Community cases are "no longer doubling every few days" but the taskforce has to monitor the trend in the next few days to understand the trajectory of the transmission, health minister Ong Ye Kung said at the virtual doorstop on Oct. 20.

There is a higher percentage of infected persons with no symptoms or mild symptoms, up from 98 per cent to about 98.6 per cent over the last 28 days. This is a positive trend, Ong said.

The third positive trend observed in recent weeks is that there is a drop in the number of vaccinated seniors aged above 60 getting infected. Ong said that there are a few contributing factors to this, and a major factor is the booster shots that seniors have received.

Negative trends

However, there are some concerns that Ong raised during the virtual doorstop.

Ong said that the total number of cases is not yet falling and that this will take time, and the hospitals and healthcare workers continue to work under high pressure.

He also pointed out that the number of infected unvaccinated seniors remains high and "they account for two-thirds of patients in ICU".

Ong added that he hope the vaccinated differentiated measures implemented recently can help to bring the number of infections among unvaccinated seniors down.

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