- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
- Messages
- 104,213
- Points
- 113
Singapore Matters
By Vicknesh Rajamohan
Super long post. Even by my standards. A commentary on an extremely stubborn government.
I try not to make too many comments on the Covid-19 numbers, simply because I'm not an expert. It is going to be hard for me to understand or provide a perspective on the current numbers with their intricacies.
But I have a good memory. I don't forget things easily. Not too long ago, when some countries in Asean had yet to have a single reported case of Covid-19, we already had double-digit numbers. At one point of time we had the most cases outside of China and Japan.
Why?
Beyond the obvious issues of high population density per sq km and being a tradehub, we had one important factor.
A stubborn government.
A government that refused to take the easy way out. If you don't test people, you won't have any cases. If you pick and choose who you want to test you will achieve a high negative/testing ratio.
But this was a stubborn task force being led by a stubborn government. Everyone with the slightest risk was being contact traced and that's how we managed to ring fence our cases and get international plaudits.
But when the first wave ended, our cases rose again. Why?
Same reason. Absolutely stubborn government.
Where countries around the world were making a very popular judgement call to restrict arrival of high infection - risk citizens, this government and its agencies were moving mountains in making avenues to bring back our citizens and residents. They were exhausting every single channel to bring back our people. The sheer audacity.
As a result our imported cases rose exponentially again. But the stubborn government methodologically isolated every single arrival and ring-fenced them. Now? Imported cases are at 0.
They could have been happy. Everyone could have been happy. But what did this stubborn government decide to do? The moment they realised that the Foreign Worker clusters were forming, they decided to do the unthinkable. Isolate entire dormitories and test everyone and anyone at risk.
"You get a test. He gets a test. Everyone gets a test." well not quite. But the people at the front line doing the testing are the best in the world.
The government could have washed its hand off the Foreign Workers or withheld testing unless they exhibited severe symptoms. This is what many countries are doing, even for their own people.
But what does our stubborn government do?
It tests even people without any symptoms if they have a high risk factor. And as a result we have reached 8000+ cases now.
But we only have 22 in ICU.
Unfortunately 11 deaths have been recorded, but it means our mortality rate is at 0.137%.
I'm not downplaying it. Because this is serious. The 2899 hospitalised are stretching our hospital resources and kudos to the healthcare staff and every single essential worker.
But I just want to remind you that we have a stubborn government. A government that insists on doing the right thing regardless of what happens to its popularity. A government that insists on weighing the pros and cons and making the best possible decision based on given data, instead of relying on individual whims and fancies.
At this point, all you have to do is trust this stubborn government, play your part and do the right thing. The only negative we want to see now is on the test kit. That too a double negative. Everywhere else, keep positive!
------
There's a related PAP shill blog:
http://papinreview.blogspot.com/
-----
https://www.google.com/search?&q=Vicknesh+Rajamohan
Could it be this guy?
https://www.facebook.com/vicknesh.rajamohan
