Remember the days when we had little to no unlinked cases in Singapore?
Yeah, those days are long gone.
Today, there are many unlinked cases, which is why the government had to impose strict circuit-breaker measures to prevent further spread of the coronavirus:
In The Last 2 Weeks, 3 in 4 Infected Non-Dormitory COVID-19 Patients Are Still Unlinked
According to The Straits Times, almost three in four COVID-19 cases in Singaporeans and permanent residents with links that haven’t been established cropped up in the past 14 days, according to the most updated situation report by the Health Ministry (MOH).
From 30 March up till Sunday, 205 local cases were detected but its links are still being investigated.
These 205 cases make up as much as 72% of the 284 cases that are still being investigated since the coronavirus outbreak broke out.
MOH has also classified a grand total of 312 cases where no link has been found as “unlinked”, and these numbers have been increasing in the past two weeks.
Possible Reasons For Unlinked Cases
Professor Teo Yik Ying, the dean of the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health pointed out that there may be two reasons for this.
The first is that the trend could be pointing to a greater community transmission.
The second is that it could be that contact tracing is lagging behind actual figures due to theme large number of new cases everyday.
As of late, the number of imported cases have been on the decline due to returning travellers being made to serve a 14 day stay-home notice at government facilities.
This has effectively helped to stop transmission from abroad, according to Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, infectious diseases programme leader at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
Virus More Contagious That Originally Thought & Circuit Braker Measures Are Essential
However, strict circuit breaker measures had to be implemented following the rise in unlinked cases.
Without these, the number of unlinked coronavirus cases could double or triple.
Experts also speculate that the number of unlinked cases could be due to asymptomatic infections.
As if we already don’t have enough to worry about, the latest studies have also shown that the virus is more contagious than what we first thought.
About Half Of COVID-19 Cases Might Be From Asymptomatic People
Recent epidemiology models have also found that around half of COVID-19 cases might have been from carriers who have yet to show symptoms.
Thus, it is imperative to abide by circuit breaker measures.
Dr Leong pointed out, “when you do not know if a person has the virus, you let them near you. The virus can be inside the body for only around four weeks; if it fails to spread, it dies. Each time it spreads, its lifespan is extended. That is why we must strictly adhere to the circuit breaker measures to stop transmission.”
However, it is still too early to deduce whether circuit breaker measures have been working as planned as it takes around 14 days to see the impact on infection figures, according to experts.
That being said, experts emphasise that Singaporeans must cooperate to fully stop the transmission of the coronavirus.
In addition, we must continue to stay “individually vigilant” during and even after the circuit breaker measures are lifted.
Let’s all play our parts to break the transmission of the virus.