Emergence of new Covid-19 variants likely to outpace containment of virus: Lawrence Wong

Claudia Tan HS

Published Mon, Jul 5, 2021 · 08:15 AM

THE world is unlikely to reach a point where enough people are immune to stop the spread of the virus before the emergence of new variants, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in Parliament on Monday.

This comes with the emergence of multiple virus variants amid the long drawn battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

"When the pandemic first broke out, some thought it might be all over after a year. Unfortunately, this scenario has not materialised," said Mr Wong. "We are dealing with a very tricky virus. Each time you think you have it under control, it comes storming back."

The highly-contagious Delta variant is causing a wave of new Covid-19 cases even in countries such as China and Australia, which have kept their borders tight. It is fast becoming the world's dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2, having spread throughout Asia, and is now making its way to countries around the world.

The Delta variant is estimated to be 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was first detected in the UK and was about 50 per cent more transmissible than the original strain.

Still, Delta may not be the worst variant of this virus, said Mr Wong.

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"We must be prepared to see new strains that are more transmissible, vaccine-resistant, and even able to evade current diagnostic tests," he said.

The good news, however, is that mRNA vaccines, be it Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, offer "excellent protection against severe illness", even with the Delta variant, said Mr Wong.

But in places where vaccination rates are not high enough, especially amongst the elderly population, the increase in infections may lead to higher hospitalisation, ICU admissions and eventually fatalities, he added.

That said, Singapore is now "in a much better position to deal with the pandemic now, than at the start", said Mr Wong.

The country now has more robust public health defences, including testing and contact tracing capabilities, which have allowed faster detection of Covid-19 cases to contain the spread of new clusters.

Singapore has also procured enough mRNA vaccines as part of the national vaccination programme and is able to offer these vaccines to all eligible people in Singapore, said Mr Wong.

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