Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation on Monday afternoon to provide an update on the COVID-19 situation in Singapore.
Key Takeaways from PM Lee’s address
We had discovered new clusters of COVID-19 infections. One cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and then another at Changi Airport. More cases soon followed. We also started seeing unlinked cases, implying community spread.
So we had to step back from Phase 3. We went on Heightened Alert to reduce social interaction and new infections. Everyone has responded to cooperate on the measures we had to take. Offices, malls and the streets are all visibly quieter.
Because of your support, the number of daily cases has come down. Barring another super-spreader or big cluster, we should be on track to bring this outbreak under control. We will know for sure in another week or so.
Meanwhile, I count on everyone to keep up our efforts and stay vigilant. Please continue to stay home, work from home if possible and go out only if you must. Most importantly, if you feel unwell, see a doctor immediately – even if you have been vaccinated.
If our situation continues to improve and the number of community cases falls further, we should be able to relax the restrictions after Jun 13.
Unfortunately, we are also fighting new, more infectious variants of the COVID-19 virus. The B117 variant, which was first detected in the UK, has become widespread in the US and many other countries. We are now dealing with the B16172 variant, which was first detected in India and is now in over 50 countries. More variants will inevitably emerge and we will have to deal with them too.
Because of Singaporeans’ self-discipline, public spirit, and support of TraceTogether and SafeEntry, we are contact-tracing faster and more comprehensively.
We are vaccinating as many people as our supplies allow. Our 40 vaccination centres islandwide are running smoothly.
The constraint is vaccine supply. This is why we have been working very hard to confirm and speed up deliveries of vaccines from our suppliers.
I am happy to report that since the last update by the MTF, we have received further confirmation of faster vaccine deliveries over the next two months.
With the latest supply schedule, we can further boost our vaccination programme. We can offer the vaccine to everyone, even sooner than we expected.
I have outlined our strategy for the next phase of the fight against COVID-19.
To keep our people safe while reopening progressively, we have to test, we have to trace, we have to vaccinate, and we have to do all three of these more quickly and more extensively.