On May 31, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong outlined a strategy that included casting a wider net during contact tracing to isolate close contacts more quickly (Plans for new normal with people living with virus in their midst, June 1).

In an article published in The Straits Times on June 24, the three co-chairs of the task force tackling the pandemic outlined plans for transitioning to a new normal (S'pore preparing road map for living with Covid-19). They said that in time, testing domestically will no longer be a tool for ring-fencing and quarantining people, but will be used more to ensure that events, social activities and overseas trips can take place safely, as well as to reduce transmission risks.

They also said there may not be a need to conduct massive contact tracing and quarantining of people each time we discover an infection.

Can Singapore delay the decision to remove massive contact tracing and quarantining measures until after the whole world has reached a certain level of herd immunity through vaccination?

Aaron Soon