The recent “dizzying array of phases” that Singapore has moved in and out of in the last year and a half of the pandemic has caused plenty of confusion and frustration, said infectious diseases specialist and chairman of Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Professor Paul Tambyah.
“We’re about a year and a half into the pandemic and we have this dizzying array of phases,” he said.
“So we went to Phase 2 then Phase 3, then back to Phase 2, and now we’re in the Preparatory Phase, Phase 1 of 4. And I think most people are so confused, they’ve just kind of given up.”
In an hour-long Facebook Live discussion, titled ‘Ask Paul Anything’, on Tuesday evening (17 Aug), Prof Tambyah was asked how he would rate the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force so far.
Ever the diplomat, he responded that it is “still too early” to judge the leadership.
Prof Tambyah mentioned that one of the things the task force did right was publishing an editorial piece a few weeks ago on learning to live with the virus.
The editorial in The Straits Times, titled ‘Living normally, with Covid-19: Task force ministers on how S’pore is drawing road map for new normal‘, was published on 24 June. The article was written by Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, all of whom are co-chairs of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force.
The article presented a sort of road map for the country to transition into a new normal of living with COVID-19 as an endemic and what that would entail.
However, Prof Tambyah pointed out that certain things have been “really confusing and frustrating” for small business owners, such as the lack of clarity in the criteria that would trigger a scaling up or down of restrictions.
Noting that countries tend to have a set of criteria for such situations, he cited the example of New Zealand which went into a nationwide lockdown with just one new case reported – ending the country’s run of six months without community transmission.
“We could have certain criteria like if it’s more than 10 cases or more than 10 unlinked cases, then you scale back certain things,” Prof Tambyah expressed.
“But, you know, a few weeks ago, when they introduced these restrictions certain numbers of vaccinated people certain numbers of and vaccinated people and it was just really, really confusing,” he added.
As for what improvements the task force could make, Prof Tambyah said that a lot of it is “philosophical”.
“Because Singapore, unfortunately, for the last 60 years has been very much a top-down society,” he explained, adding that this has led to people just waiting for instructions from the top.
As such, Prof Tambyah opined: “[For Singaporeans] to come up with alternative solutions and have these considered seriously by the task force would be a good option.”
Watch the full discussion here:
