Singapore COVID-19

Undoubtedly the single most pressing concern all over the world this year, Singapore’s COVID-19 concerns took a major upturn as the government took the unprecedented step of shutting its borders to all short-term travellers in mid-March.

The closure was announced a day after the country recorded its first two fatalities from the virus and with total infections rising past 430 some two months after the first case was confirmed.

But with increasing transmissions within the community, a circuit breaker was imposed shortly after, beginning from 7 April and lasting till 1 June. On 14 April, wearing a face mask in public was made mandatory.

Restrictions were gradually eased over the course of the year and, as the number of locally transmitted cases continued to remained low, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (14 December) announced that Phase 3 of Singapore’s reopening will begin in two weeks’ time.

The government is also on track to secure vaccines for all Singaporeans and long-term residents by 2021, Lee said. The vaccines will be made free but not compulsory.

As of Wednesday (16 December), the tally of cases stands at 58,353. Apart from 29 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.