It was simply a matter of time before the Omicron variant of the coronavirus hit Singapore, albeit not with an epidemiological fury - yet. Already, Omicron cases make up around 18 per cent of all Covid-19 cases reported to the Ministry of Health (MOH). The proportion is expected to rise further, driven by the high transmissibility of the strain compared with the Delta and other variants. There is hence a strong likelihood that the next infection wave may be larger than the Delta surge which hit last October and November. At Delta's peak, infections reached about 3,000 cases a day. An Omicron wave could see two or three times as many in a worst-case scenario.

Those would be startling figures. Yet there are reasons for optimism. While Omicron is much more infectious than Delta, the evidence thus far suggests that it is also less severe. Singapore rode the Delta wave by adopting progressive and sensible containment policies and did not let up on basic safe management measures; vaccination and booster programmes continued apace.