Singapore to become one of first nations to STOP counting Covid cases as it plans to treat virus ‘like the flu’

SINGAPORE could become one of the first countries to stop recording daily Covid case numbers in a bid to get life back to normal by treating the virus “like the flu”.

The south-east Asian country has recorded just 36 deaths since the start of the pandemic by implementing draconian rules to curb the infection rate, and officials now wanting to ditch measures such as counting infection numbers each day.

Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates

EPASingapore could stop counting daily Covid case numbers[/caption]

EPAProposals have been made to let people in Singapore ‘get on with their lives’[/caption]

A blueprint has now been laid out by three leading members of Singapore’s Covid-19 taskforce to end 18 months of tough restrictions in order to restore quarantine-free travel and public gatherings.

The city-state, which has a population of 5.7million, has to date recorded 62,617 cases – but this proposal would see an end to a daily tally count.

The hope is to let people “get on with their lives” by scrapping tough rules and instead controlling the virus through other means, such as mass vaccination and better treatments.

“Instead of monitoring Covid-19 infection numbers every day, we will focus on the outcomes,” the trade, finance and health ministers wrote in a joint op-ed in the Straits Times.

“How many fall very sick, how many in the intensive care unit, how many need to be intubated for oxygen, and so on. This is like how we now monitor influenza.

“We can’t eradicate it, but we can turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like influenza, hand, foot and mouth disease, or chickenpox, and get on with our lives.”

Officials in Singapore are aiming to give at least two thirds of the population their first jab early this month, with the same number fully jabbed by the start of August.

The ministers added: “Early evidence suggests that with vaccination, we can tame Covid-19.

“Vaccines are highly effective in reducing the risk of infection as well as transmission. Even if you are infected, vaccines will help prevent severe Covid-19 symptoms.

“The bad news is that Covid-19 may never go away. The good news is that it is possible to live normally with it in our midst.”

Full details of the roadmap have yet to be revealed, but ministers suggested measures such as breathalyser-style tests, more therapeutic treatments and greater personal responsibility.

Singapore’s proposal could be an early sign of the world starting to live with Covid after 18 months of restrictions across the globe.

‘LEARN TO LIVE WITH COVID’

In the UK, health secretary Sajid Javid has argued Britain is going to have to “learn to live with Covid” – and compared its future to that of the flu.

He has has vowed to lift the remaining coronavirus restrictions on July 19 as he plans to make Britain the “most open country in Europe”.

Mr Javid also urged everyone to get their jab as soon as they are offered one, describing the vaccination programme as “the single biggest contribution you can make to this national effort”.

But scientists have warned that the pandemic isn’t yet over, and that unvaccinated people are Covid “variant factories” who could prolong the pandemic and lead to more restrictions.

The dire prediction comes as the World Health Organisation warned that mutant strains are already outpacing the current wave of jabs as much of the world had hoped the virus horror could be coming to an end.

More than half of the world’s population have not yet had a dose of the Covid vaccine – with some three billion doses administered worldwide.

And while the highest jab rates in the world are figures such as 73 per cent in Iceland and 67 per cent in the UK, some of poorer nations such as African countries have barely scratched the surface.

It is feared gaping holes in the global vaccine coverage combined with rampant outbreaks will allow new variants – such as Delta and the newly concerning Lambda strains – to spawn.

Mutations may then be able to beat vaccines and potentially force countries back into lockdown as they face being taken back to square one in the fight against Covid.

And it also comes as many nations see continuing anti-vax sentiment as many people refuse to get the jab.