Singapore has announced that the country will be extending its partial lockdown by four weeks until June 1. Initially, the lockdown was set to run from April 7 until May. By Amitha Ameen
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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a televised address made the announcement at a time when the city state’s migrant worker community has seen a sudden sharp spike in COVID-19 cases. The nation was earlier praised for taming the deadly illness before things took a turn for the worse.
Prime Minister Lee added that the country of 5.7 million people need to be even stricter with their social distancing measures so that they can look at not only bringing down, but probably also destroy the virus in the nation.
At the moment, Singapore has the most number of coronavirus cases in South East Asia with 9,125 confirmed cases. Close to 78% of the numbers are linked to migrant labourer dormitories. These cramped dormitories, many of which are under government ordered quarantine, are now the island nation’s biggest coronavirus cluster.
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“This suggests there is a larger, hidden reservoir of cases in the community,” Lee was quoted saying. “We will, therefore, extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks,” he added and urged people to stay indoors and reduce interactions as much as possible.
Prior to Lee’s nation-wide address, Singapore was only under a partial lockdown. While schools and workplaces remained shut, essential services including food and groceries were still functioning.
With the new lockdown extension, people can expect more workplaces to be shut and designated days for going to the supermarkets. Authorities are also looking at bringing down the number of daily commuters to work by 20%.
Related: #TnLLockdownSeries: Our Reader Shares Her First-Hand Experience Of Singapore Under Lockdown
