SG remains committed to reopening: Wong

He said they will also continue to protect lives and livelihoods.

Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong addressed the media during the multi-ministry COVID-19 taskforce press conference, thanking Singaporeans for cooperating with the new measures, such as reduced group sizes, that were introduced as part of the stabilisation.

He also thanked the citizens for their patience and understanding about teething issues in the new healthcare protocols.

He reiterated that [Health Minister Ong Ye Kung] said the entire task force, together with reinforcements from the Armed Forces, is working to resolve outstanding issues. 

The government continues to monitor the infection situation closely because the full impact of the tightening measures introduced in the stabilisation phase takes at least one week for any results. However, Wong said they are already seeing some signs of slowing in the transmission rate, with the doubling time of cases taking longer from one week to about ten days.

"As we have stated before, we do not expect the new measures to help to bring down the total number of daily cases. The new measures are aimed at slowing the rate of increase of transmission to give us time to stabilise all the healthcare protocols and to strengthen and enhance capacity in our hospital system. Of course, no wave will last forever. Eventually, even after you see some of the results of our latest measures, it is not going to bring the cases down, but it will slow the rate of increase and, at some point, the wave will crest."

According to Wong, many European countries experienced large waves last year, and they went through waves before they had the chance for their people to be vaccinated. He noted Singapore currently has a 98% vaccination rate.