With an escalating number of unlinked cases, Singapore is likely to see a surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks.
New cases with no apparent links to existing cases are a cause for concern as they signal greater community transmission, said Vice Dean (Research), Associate Professor Alex Cook.
He said: “We have three different kinds of cases. We’ve got imported cases and these are ones that are perhaps not so much of a concern because they are issued stay-home notices, which isolates them from creating secondary cases in the community.
“There’s a group of cases which are linked to existing clusters and these are also less of a concern and the reason is because they are already known and they’re part of our contact tracing…
“It’s the third group that we’re more concerned about. These are the unlinked cases. These are individuals for which we don’t know how they got infected, and it may reflect greater community transmission.”
He was speaking at a special Facebook Watch news event on the impact of the virus in the Asia-Pacific region. Held on 3 April, the event was co-hosted by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, The Straits Times in Singapore and Australian channel 7News.
The Singapore segment covered topics such as the rise in cases here, the concept of herd immunity and why social distancing is important.
Assoc Prof Cook said that whether Singapore will have herd immunity will depend on how successful control policies are.
“If we have successful control, then we won’t get herd immunity, (as) we won’t have enough infections to reach that level.
If our control doesn’t work, then the only thing that will stop the epidemic will be when we reach the herd immunity threshold.”
Social distancing continues to be vital, especially as some carriers of the virus may show mild or no symptoms, added Professor Wang Linfa, director of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, who also participated in the event.
“It’s obvious now with so many people getting infected with COVID-19, that we have people (who are) truly asymptomatic. These are the people that we really need to watch and it is difficult because they still carry the virus and they can be a transmitter in society,” said Prof Wang.
“It’s really important that if you had contact with sick people, you have to really consider that you are also at risk. Even without symptoms, you should really watch yourself and (practise) social distancing. This is why it’s important to have social distance even for healthy people and you may also want to avoid close contact.”
Watch the full video here:
Media coverage:
- Coronavirus: Surge in cases possible here, says expert during Facebook special on the virus, The Straits Times, 3 April 2020
- Coronavirus: social distancing remains the best strategy, experts tell Facebook’s Covid Frontline event co-hosted by SCMP, South China Morning Post, 3 April 2020
- Singapore could see a surge in coronavirus cases due to community transmission, says expert, The Straits Times, 4 April 2020
- S’pore could see a surge in cases due to community transmission: Expert, The Straits Times (Print), 4 April 2020
- Coronavirus: Social distancing the best defence for now, say experts, The Straits Times, 4 April 2020
- Social distancing the best defence for now, say experts, The Straits Times (Print), 4 April 2020
- Experts put faith in social distancing as vaccine a year away, South China Morning Post (Print), 4 April 2020