Singapore is highlighting the Covid infection of its 63-year-old defense minister as a way to soothe ongoing fears in the city state about the virus, despite one of the highest vaccination and booster rates in the world.
"The vaccine and booster have turned a potentially life-threatening disease to a mild one - a bad sore throat,” wrote Ng Eng Hen, in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Until late last year, Singapore pursued a Covid Zero strategy aimed at keeping the virus out entirely. Its pivot to living alongside the pathogen has been rocky. Key among the moves is a shift to home recovery. Infected people previously had to isolate at dedicated facilities and the shift has been jarring for some.
The Ministry of Health reported more than 12,000 local cases as of noon Tuesday, surpassing the peak of a delta-induced spike last year. Yet about 99.7% of local cases in the last four weeks have been mild or asymptomatic, according to health ministry data, among the highest such proportions here since the start of the pandemic.
While just 23 Covid patients required intensive care as of Tuesday, the health ministry warned on Sunday that hospitals are seeing "a high number of patients” at emergency departments, leading to long waiting times, with children-catered facilities seeing a particular spike.
"Most of these patients did not require emergency care,” said the ministry in a statement. Last week, it issued a separate advisory stating that medical memos were not required to certify recovery from Covid-19 after clinics reported a surge in patients with "no or mild symptoms” seeking such documentation.
Officials in the city-state are seeking to dispel fears of the virus after pivoting toward a strategy of living with the virus. They tout one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with nearly 90% of the population fully vaccinated and over 60% of the total population having received boosters.
Ng said he used remedies including paracetamol and honey ginger tea to tackle symptoms over five days. Avoiding the omicron variant was hard unless "one became a recluse,” he said.
At the same time, officials are calling for patience in the easing of strict virus control measures, such as group limits and mandatory mask wearing, which have been in place for nearly two years.
An online poll of 1,000 respondents last month commissioned by local paper The Straits Times last month showed more than half of Singaporeans think virus-related curbs will last through at least the end of the year.
