SINGAPORE has taken a “step down but not dismantle” position on Covid-19 measures, allowing it to reactivate the TraceTogether app and SafeEntry check-ins as well as step up vaccine-differentiated safe management measures if required by a worsening of the pandemic situation, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament on Monday (May 9).

As to what would trigger such a move, Ong said it is a “matter of judgement” and would depend on the severity of the situation: “We will have to take into account if there is a new variant of concern, whether it is more severe or more infectious than Omicron variant, whether past infections and current vaccines continue to confer strong protection against the new variant, and how all these affect our hospital capacity.”

While many may want a system with “transparent and clear triggering points”, Ong stressed that it is not possible given that Singapore is in a “pandemic crisis with fog of war”.

“Through the multi-ministry taskforce’s actions over the years, I hope the public would also appreciate where we are coming from,” said Ong, responding to questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Covid-19 situation in Singapore.

“We will do what is necessary to protect lives when danger is upon us and we will step down measures when they are no longer necessary so that people can resume their normal lives,” he added.

On the concerns from members of the public that they may be taken to task for disposing their TraceTogether tokens, Ong said: “Our key consideration is not so much about protection of the equipment, but to make sure that should we have another variant of concern, businesses and individuals are ready to respond.”

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Replying to a question on Singapore’s age-standardised death rate or excess deaths – comparing death rates across years, taking into account the population’s changing age profile – Ong said that the death rate increased to 557 per 100,000 residents in 2021 due to the pandemic, more than the 519 per 100,000 in 2020 and back to almost 2017 levels.

In 2021, the excess deaths among Singapore residents was around 1,535, after accounting for ageing. Of these, there were 804 Covid-19 deaths among residents at the end of 2021, or about 52 per cent of excess deaths.

As for the remaining excess deaths, these could be due to infected persons who died of other illnesses where Covid-19 infection may be a contributing factor but not the main cause, and changes in care-seeking behaviour during the pandemic, such as individuals putting off seeking treatment, said Ong.

However, unlike other countries, Singapore’s excess deaths were not due to under-reporting of deaths, which is uncommon in urban environments; and overwhelmed hospitals, as the government prioritised protecting the healthcare system to ensure that it was never overwhelmed, he said.

“MOH (Ministry of Health) is continuing to collect and analyse the data to find out more comprehensively the impact of this crisis on Singapore residents,” said Ong. A special report will be released soon to estimate the excess deaths over the past 2 and a half years, as well as the key factors which caused them.

Responding to a separate question on the government’s after-action review (AAR) on its response to Covid-19, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said work has started on the first phase of the pandemic response, which covers the start of the pandemic to last August. Peter Ho, former head of the civil service, will oversee the process.

“The AAR is intended as a broad ranging exercise to thoroughly analyse our experiences and review the lessons learned so that we can better prepare for the next pandemic,” said Wong.

He added that a similar approach was taken after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak. “This is why we put in place a Dorscon (Disease Outbreak Response System Condition) framework and set up the NCID (National Centre for Infectious Diseases).“

Wong said the lessons derived from the review will include how Singapore can improve its national resiliency in a broad range of areas. These will be shared publicly when the AAR is complete.