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Third week of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert
What is most difficult during this Phase of restrictions is that we cannot eat at hawker centres or food outlets. We can only buy take-away food from them. This is similar to last year’s Circuit Breaker and Phase 1 that ended on June 18, 2020.
For nearly one year, we were able to dine in with just restrictions on numbers like group of 5 or group of 8 (from June 19 and from December 28 respectively). Because of increases in community cases arising from Tan Tock Seng Hospital Cluster and Changi Airport Cluster and then spreading to other parts of Singapore, Singapore imposed Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) lockdown. Dine-in is no longer allowed. This has a knock-on effect on the retail sector that depends on footfalls of diners in eateries nearby. As a result, most shopping malls were quiet.
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My feel is that there is complacency and pandemic fatigue after one year of alerts and after a year of wearing face masks. Another is a sense of misplaced confidence in tackling the pandemic since the nation has started vaccination against Covid-19.
It is common to see people not wearing face masks or not wearing them properly. It is also common to see people gathering together and talk or smoke together without regard to safe distancing. It is also common to see people in crowded places like the park connectors, walking trails or nature trails on weekends. All these are sources of transmission of infections, among other settings.
This reminded me of the graphic appearing in The Straits Times (24 June 2020) that shows the Covid-19 risks: The three Cs and one D. 1C is Closed Spaces, 2C is Close Contact Settings with Close-Range Communication, 3C Crowded Spaces, D is Duration and Diversity of Contacts. The probability of virus transmission is heightened when these 4 factors overlap.
One year ago, we were warned. One year on, we are still on heightened alert. To fight this invisible coronavirus, every single one must pull together in the same direction. If this were not the case, we will forever be fighting flare-ups in the future.
