ANN/CNA – The days of leaving the house without a mask could be over if the situation around the COVID-19 XBB variant wave worsens – but experts believe that at the moment, there is little need to implement such “blunt community restrictions”.
“The truth is that it needs to run its course,” senior consultant at the Division of Infectious Diseases in the National University Hospital Professor Dale Fisher told CNA on Tuesday.
“But as increases in cases in the future occur, we need to ride the waves and protect the vulnerable more… It’s conceivable that we may need to retrace more in the future particularly if severe disease increases.”
Visitor safe management measures at all hospital wards and residential care homes in Singapore have been tightened till November 10 as community cases rise.
On Saturday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said infections from the XBB strain, an Omicron subvariant, will likely peak around mid-November.
Such cases have been on the rise in Singapore over the past month, but so far, the outbreak has not prompted more severe disease than previous variants have.
Ong added that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is closely monitoring the situation. It does not rule out reimposing safe management measures such as mask-wearing, but will try its “very best” not to disrupt normal lives, he said.
There is no evidence that the current XBB wave is causing a significant increase in mortality or severe illness, said president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection Dr Paul Tambyah.
“The main impact has been in terms of the extended MCs (medical certificates), as well as hospitalisations for individuals who have a mild illness but (have) risk factors identified during previous waves to be associated with complications,” he told CNA.
Most patients that Dr Tambyah has seen in the last few days – including a couple of 90-year-olds – have been well, but their family members are “understandably anxious and have asked for closer monitoring”.
