Conversation

The biggest thing is that local spread is happening despite nearly-100% masking and despite vaccinations. Which prompted the government to trigger a lockdown. A friend put it best: "it seems like we're back to uncertainty again, with some of these variants."

Some direct sources, so people can evaluate for themselves: straitstimes.com/singapore/one- straitstimes.com/singapore/spee Seems to be some combination of: variant is able to infect fully vaccinated people, variant has longer incubation period, and variant is more transmissible.

It seems

is one of the best accounts to follow for SG-related COVID updates. (Thanks to

@andnowsheisnot

for the rec.)

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Septian Hartono

@septian

May 14, 2021

Replying to @DrZoeHyde

For us it's a game changer. We handled previous variants quite handily. There were leaks too but they were shut down quickly. But not this one. It really leaves very little margin of error and unfortunately we didn't help our cause with our own blunders.

Ok, this thread is going viral, so further clarification: - Fully vaccinated people are mostly doing fine. Either asymptomatic or light symptoms. But they become spreaders. The issue is that in SG, most of the population isn't vaccinated. That's where the danger lies.

- The variant seems more transmissible; some local authorities are recommending double masking. - Official guidance is for mask even when walking outdoors in a park now. - From the ST article on Changi, above, some spread occurred despite staff wearing PPE, prompting a review.

There's also a cluster in a tuition centre now, which wasn't a thing with past waves. (My understanding is that schools weren't regarded as a high-risk vector, so it was a surprise when the Gov shut down schools in an unexpected announcement on Sunday).

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CNA

@ChannelNewsAsia

As of May 17, the Learning Point #COVID19 cluster in Singapore has grown to 20 cases, including 12 students. Timeline of events: cna.asia/33MXq84

Singapore's PM just chimed in with a FB post about this last thing: facebook.com/leehsienloong/ To contextualise this a bit, it is understood that the original COVID-19 virus wasn't that bad for kids, and schools weren't a high risk env. That's no longer true for the B.1.167 variant

(Or at least the Singapore government no longer believes it to be true; they just announced 12-15 year olds will be allowed the vaccines).