Life in Singapore (243 cases, 0 deaths) has pretty much returned to normal.
People are walking around, mostly without masks. Shops & restaurants are open.
Big events & school activities such as tournaments were canceled, but schools remained open unless there was a case.
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How:
- travel restrictions (they did this early)
- isolated infections
- aggressive contact-tracing procedures
- levied tough penalties for not following quarantines
- punished those who provided false info
- effective communication that struck right balance
- full transparency
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What they didn't do:
- area-wide lockdowns
- edict to close businesses
- weld people shut in their apartments
- press to call government officials' actions racist
- punish whistleblowers
- care about "looking bad," thereby obscuring reality
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Today, life in Singapore with COVID19 is disrupted (or "slightly inconvenienced") by pervasive temperature scans & information-taking.
We're talking about every building, office, mall, hospital.
Large events (>250 people) are still canceled, but other than that, life goes on.
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On February 9th, here's what the # of cases outside of China looks like:
No one in Singapore was sanguine about the country's prospects... it looked grave.
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This video was captured in Singapore by .
Update: Singapore had 47 new Covid19 cases; largest single-day jump.
33 (mostly Singaporeans) of them contracted it from abroad.
New rule imposed: everyone entering Singapore will be issued a 14-day stay-home notice.
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Update:
Since this thread, Singapore has since reported two Covid19 deaths and a sharp increase in confirmed cases to 559.
Because the majority of these cases were imported, Singapore's has banned all tourists from entering or transiting in the city state.
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Travel restrictions have been tightened for work visa holders and their dependents, with only those providing essential services, such as in health care and transport, allowed to enter.
All returning from UK & USA must tay in hotels to serve their 14-day stay-home notice (SHN).
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Those who breach the SHN will face enhanced fines of less than $10,000 or jail of less than six months or both.
Any Singaporean resident who leaves Singapore will be charged unsubsidised rates should they be hospitalized in public hospitals for Covid19 treatment.
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Singapore schools remain open.
Handful of students contracted covid19; each one caught it outside of their schools.
Education minister said that closing schools “will disrupt many lives.” He cited parents who are both working and have no domestic helpers.
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Bars, cinemas and all other entertainment outlets will be closed till April 30th.
All religious services will be suspended.
Malls, museums and restaurants must reduce crowd density to stay open (see next tweet for details):
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Stricter safe distancing measures have since been introduced to reduce the risk of local transmission.
Here are some pictures of what that looks like in retail and food court settings.
Several stop-work and remedial orders were issued to workplaces who did not comply.
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Singapore seems to be trying to maximize economic activity while controlling the spread.
My friend took a video as he walked around various parts of the country yesterday. You can see what life looks like on the ground there here:
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