The coronavirus situation in Singapore has become "stable" as health authorities managed to reduce the transmission to a "practically negligible level," Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Ho Wei Hong said Saturday.
Singapore has also started to implement its vaccination program early this year to protect the citizens from the illness and facilitate the safe reopening of the city-state’s economy. So far, it has administered 800,000 vaccines, according to Ambassador Ho.
As of March 20, Singapore reported 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases to 60,184. Thirty people died from COVID-19 complications.
So how did Singapore manage to curb the coronavirus outbreak?
The measures implemented by Singapore ranged from implementing travel curbs, mandatory mask-wearing to intensifying efforts to trace and test people with the illness.
"Singapore as you know is a densely populated city center. We are very vulnerable to pandemic outbreaks. Fortunately, we were able to prevent the situation from getting out of hand and overwhelming our health systems,” the ambassador said during a virtual Pandesal forum Saturday, March 20.
"What we did was put in place international travel restrictions, required the use of face masks in public and social distancing, and conducted extensive testing and contact tracing to disrupt the COVID-19 transmissions," he said.
These efforts have paid off as Singapore managed to limit the number of infections and deaths.
"Thankfully, our situation now is stable and community transmissions have been brought down to practically negligible level,” Ho said.
He noted that Singapore's COVID-19 vaccination program started last January.
Based on Singapore's Minister of Health's official website, the vaccines are given free to all Singaporeans and long-time residents. Healthcare workers and other frontline workers as well as vulnerable groups including the elderly are given vaccine priority.
"As of this week, we have administered around 800,000 doses,” the envoy said.
No one-size-fits-all pandemic response
When asked for Singapore's suggestions on how Philippines could slow down the spread of the coronavirus, the diplomat maintained that the government needed no advice from him. He pointed out that every country was dealing with different challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's not possible to do a one-size-fits-all for everything," he said.
"We tell people that we can share with you what we did, all right, but we cannot promise to you that what we do will work for you," he added.
The Philippines has reported its highest daily cases of infections at 7,999 new active cases March 20, pushing the country’s total to 656,056. More than 12,000 people have died from the illness.
Ambassador Ho noted that the bilateral relations between the Philippines and Singapore remained “strong,” which would help propel a “shared economic recovery” amid the pandemic.
"Singapore is committed to committed to safe reopening of our economy, and growing PH-Singapore trade and investments,” he said.
“I'm confident that by continuing to work together, and through multilateral mechanisms such COVAX facility and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the Philippines and Singapore will be able to emerge from this pandemic stronger together,” he added.
'We can’t afford to be complacent'
As countries start to roll out vaccination program, the ambassador called on the international community to continue to band together to address the pandemic.
"We cannot afford to be complacent. The global situation can easily take a turn for the worse as we have seen in some countries," he said.
Since it was impossible to overcome the pandemic alone, the ambassador said Singapore has championed a coordinated international response to COVID-19. Singapore also committed US$5 million to the COVAX facility to bring vaccines to people in low and middle income countries.
"I am glad to see that (the) COVAX facility is bearing fruit and has delivered much-needed vaccines to intended recipient countries including the Philippines," he said.