Singapore to Stop Counting COVID Cases and Will Treat Virus Like the Flu

(The Sun) – 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 want to ditch measures such as counting infection numbers each day.

A blueprint has 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 5.7 million, has recorded 62,617 cases to date – 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.