As Singapore Pauses Reopening, Experts Suggest 'Bolder' COVID-19 Strategy

FILE PHOTO: Office workers spend their lunch breaks at the central business district during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su
FILE PHOTO: Office workers spend their lunch breaks at the central business district during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su
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As Singapore Pauses Reopening, Experts Suggest 'Bolder' COVID-19 Strategy

FILE PHOTO: Office workers spend their lunch breaks at the central business district during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su
FILE PHOTO: Office workers spend their lunch breaks at the central business district during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Singapore is ramping up COVID-19 testing and has warned it would not rule out reimposing tighter curbs as infections rise - moves some experts see as too cautious for the vaccine frontrunner that is preparing to live with the virus here as an endemic disease.

Strict surveillance and quarantine have been key to its success in dealing with the pandemic, but Singapore has reported a sharp rise in cases to one-year highs here this week, reported Reuters.

Spooked by the fast pace of transmission, the government has said it would hold off on reopening measures here and urged people to reduce social activities, sparking a debate among experts on if Singapore could "be bolder" given it has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

“There will necessarily have to be some trial and error but I personally think Singapore’s vaccination rate now allows us to be bolder with moving forward,” said Ooi Eng Eong, an infectious diseases expert at the Duke-NUS Medical School.

Some experts even question the need for rigorous testing in a country where 81% of the 5.7 million population are fully vaccinated and many of the new positive cases are asymptomatic.

With so many people vaccinated, “it’s not obvious that we need to know the infection status of asymptomatic contacts”, said Alex Cook, an infectious disease modelling expert at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Singapore has mandated routine testing for workers in additional “high risk” settings, started distributing antigen rapid test kits to households and urged everyone to self test even if they are fully vaccinated.

The country recorded 347 new local cases on Wednesday, nearly triple the infections from two weeks ago. It has reported 56 deaths so far and only six people are in intensive care.



Al Shabaab Captures Strategic Somalia Town as it Presses Offensive

Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
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Al Shabaab Captures Strategic Somalia Town as it Presses Offensive

Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME

Al Shabaab fighters captured a town in central Somalia on Wednesday that government forces had been using as a staging area to drive back an offensive by the militants that has gained ground in recent weeks, residents and soldiers said.
Advances by the al Qaeda affiliate, which included briefly capturing villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu last month, have left residents of the capital on edge as rumors swirl that al Shabaab could target the city.
The army has recaptured those villages, but al Shabaab continues to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police officers and prison guards to support the military, soldiers have told Reuters.
Six residents and three soldiers said al Shabaab seized the town of Adan Yabaal, which lies around 245 km (150 miles) north of Mogadishu, in heavy fighting on Wednesday.
"After many hours of fighting we made a tactical retreat," said Aden Ismail, a military officer who transported injured soldiers to the nearby Hiiraan region.
The army and allied clan militias have been using Adan Yabaal as an operating base for raids against al Shabaab.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who hails from the area, visited the town last month to meet with military commanders there about sending reinforcements.
"If al Shabaab captures one town, that does not mean they overpowered us," Mohamud said in a speech on Wednesday, without directly naming the town. "There is a big difference between a war and a battle."
Al Shabaab said in a statement that its forces had overrun 10 military installations during Wednesday's fighting.
"After early morning prayers, we heard a deafening explosion, then gunfire," Fatuma Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters by telephone from Adan Yabaal. "Al Shabaab attacked us from two directions."
National government officials were either not reachable or did not respond to requests for comment.
The fighting comes as the future of international security support to Somalia has grown increasingly precarious.
A new African Union peacekeeping mission replaced a larger force at the start of the year, but its funding is uncertain, with the United States opposed to a plan to transition to a UN financing model.