The basics to live with him in the long run coronavirus as it lives with other common diseases Singapore puts. In just a few weeks, with dozens of deaths from Covid-19 and one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, the country wants to reopen for business.
Singaporean medical experts point out that residents can see hundreds of their fellow citizens die each year from endemic Covid-19, as is the case with the flu. This realistic approach, Reuters notes, could be an example for other countries seeking to exit lockdowns by stepping up their own vaccination programs.
«The only way to avoid dying from a disease anywhere in the world is to completely eradicate the disease and this has only happened with smallpox.Says Paul Tabaya, president of the Association of Clinical Microbiology and Infections of Asia Pacific.
Singapore has recorded only 44 deaths from Covid-19 since early January 2020. That compares with about 800 flu deaths recorded in a typical year, according to doctors, in this country of 5.7 million. residents.
“Although the idea that there will be hundreds of deaths from Covid is shocking compared to the deaths so far and it is worth the effort to prevent this development, it will become like the flu, which society does not care about,” says Alex. Cook, a specialist in models for infectious diseases at her National University Singapore (NUS).
Up to 1,000 people could die in the next year or two in Singapore if the elderly vaccination is not improved, he added.
Experts predict that the majority of deaths will be among the oldest who remain unvaccinated, although they may have been vaccinated for months.
The country’s Health Minister Ong Ge Kung, as reported by the Athens News Agency, said this month that, as the economy opens, the citizens of Singapore must “be psychologically prepared for the fact that the death toll due to Covid-19 is likely to increase as well “.
Three-quarters of Singapore’s population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus and the country is preparing to ease more restrictions in September, when the vaccine rate will reach 80%.
As of yesterday, August 16, 80% of those aged 70 and over were fully vaccinated and the corresponding rate for those aged 60-69 was 88%.
Singapore has recorded six deaths from Covid-19 in the last two weeks. None of these six people were vaccinated.
The first results from mathematical models show that the expected number of deaths of people aged 60 and over will be around 480 in 2022, says Theo Gik Ying, rector of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS.
Other countries that were initially successful in dealing with the virus, such as Australia, are also changing their strategies to prepare for more deaths than Covid-19, at a time when the disease seems to be here to stay. But as one of the countries with the highest percentages vaccination in the world, Singapore may be the first to show what this really means.
“If countries start moving towards a Covid-19 endemic strategy, it is expected that there will be more related deaths, although it is still unclear how many of these will be excessive mortality and how many would have occurred independently of Covid-19.” , said Theo.
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