Singapore is a unique country, whose main feature since the time of the legendary Lee Kuan Yew has been extraordinary, innovative solutions that allowed the city to turn from an ordinary, backwards fishing village into one of the most developed places on the globe in half a century.
When the democratically elected dictator/Prime Minister Lee imposed harsh penalties for spitting on the streets, many felt that what he was doing was unacceptable, but now Singapore is one of the cleanest cities in Southeast Asia and the world. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, very strict restrictions were imposed in Singapore. They have yielded positive results, and it already seemed that the pandemic has been successfully overcome. However, the second wave came in Singapore as well, re-imposing strict quarantine restrictions, and living in severe tensions for almost a year. Almost like everywhere else in the world, including Latvia. But Singapore would not be Singapore if it did not go its own way in the fight against the pandemic. That is to say, to do as they please, rather than looking over their shoulder at what is being done in New York, Beijing, Brussels or Kuala Lumpur.
On June 24 this year, the three main Singapore ministers leading the fight against the pandemic (Health, Trade and Industry, Finance ministers) issued a joint statement stating that Singapore is embarking on a transition from pandemic to endemic. In other words, they are beginning to equate Covid with the ordinary flu. What are the main consequences of "downgrading" this status?
Singapore is returning to a normal (or near-normal) life as it was before the pandemic. Most restrictions and mass testing are lifted; free travel to/from absolutely all countries is allowed, regardless of their epidemiological status. One of the central sacraments of Covid religion is also being destroyed - daily statistical reports on the number of new Covid infections.
"The bad news is that Covid-19 may never go away," the statement said. "The good news is that it is possible to live normally with it in our midst. We can turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like influenza… and get on with our lives. With vaccination, testing, treatment and social responsibility, it may mean that in the near future, when someone gets Covid-19, our response can be very different from now.”
The daily reports from the pandemic front line on the number of infected and dead will be left in the past. Emphasis will be placed on the number of patients in intensive care units; how many of them require artificial lung ventilation, and other medically specific things. Statistics will no longer place special emphasis on Covid-19. It will simply become one of many diseases. Same as others. In addition, not the most dangerous.
The Singapore plan also sets the main hopes on vaccination and its growing volume. Data for July 5 show that 62.8% of the population in Singapore have received the first dose of the vaccine, and 37.4% have been fully vaccinated, which is slightly more than in Latvia, but less than in the USA and most EU countries. The idea of lifting the restrictions is based on the growing realization around the world that, despite vaccinations, strict restrictions and lockdowns, Covid-19 still won't be defeated that soon. Probably even worse. It is possible that Covid-19 will never be defeated completely. And if so, the winners will be those who will be the first to return to a normal daily life, reduce panic, not stir up tensions in society and not announce a lockdown for each outbreak.
Another argument in favor of the idea of returning to relative normalcy as soon as possible is the reduction of fatalities from Covid. Although people around the world are intimidated every day with increasingly contagious delta, gamma and epsilon (upcoming) virus strains, the facts are much more favorable to humanity - mortality is falling.
It is clear that the ruling circles in Latvia do not even want to hear about the Singapore method. As I have already written, too many in Latvia and elsewhere in the world are interested to maintain Covid hysteria for a longer time and to operate undisturbed under its cover. Unfortunately, there is no political force in our ruling coalition that would have the courage to tell the Kariņš/Pavļuts clique - enough is enough!
Instead, the division of society, the destruction of democracy and the washing away of the moral and ethical foundations of society continue, contributing to the unleashing of people's worst impulses. There is incitement to hatred against certain groups in society who do not want to submit to the orders of the Kariņš/Pavļuts clique, and these groups are blamed for what the government should actually be blamed for. For example, the mandatory wearing of a strip of cloth over the mouth and nose. Whether this strip of cloth, which doesn't protect anybody from anything, is called a protective mask or otherwise, the absolute futility of this requirement is not diminished. Therefore, it is only Kariņš's government that is to blame for the fact that people in this heat have to fulfill such idiotic demands, and not someone else.
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