Coronavirus: PM Lee Hsien Loong outlines steps needed for gradual exit from circuit breaker

Lifting of measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak will have to happen cautiously and incrementally, in conjunction with increased testing and better use of technology for contact tracing.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday outlined the steps needed for Singapore to open up again, even as he announced an extension to the period of safe distancing measures known as the circuit breaker.

Addressing the nation on the Covid-19 situation, PM Lee announced that circuit breaker measures that began on April 7 will be extended until June 1.

More stringent movement restrictions will also be in place until May 4, when the initial month-long circuit breaker period was supposed to end.

"You will naturally ask - where does this lead us? How do we exit from the circuit breaker?" said PM Lee as he sought to answer concerns during his fourth address to the nation regarding the pandemic.

Singapore must take things "one step at a time", as it will likely take more than a year for effective treatments or vaccines to be available, he said.

Explaining the country's strategy to exit the circuit breaker, PM Lee named three steps: relaxing safe distancing measures gradually, stepping up testing substantially and making better use of technology to track and trace Covid-19 infections.

He said that at first, any lifting of movement restrictions must be done incrementally and in small steps, "making sure that we are safe each step of the way".

Other countries such as New Zealand and Germany, which are beginning to do this, are being extra careful, in case Covid-19 infections return and force them to "lock down a second time", he said, adding that Singapore should try to avoid such a possibility.

Second, the Republic also needs to ramp up testing for Covid-19 "substantially" so it can quickly detect new cases that pop up, he said.

"This we are beginning to do, not only by procuring test kits and equipment from other countries, but also by developing and manufacturing our own test kits," he said.

Lastly, Singapore must make greater use of information technology to more efficiently trace the movements and contacts of Covid-19 cases when they are discovered.

PM Lee pointed to the TraceTogether app developed by the Government Technology Agency as an example, and said other apps were being developed.

He urged people to install and use these apps, saying they will work only if everyone cooperates. "There will be some privacy concerns, but we will have to weigh these against the benefits of being able to exit from the circuit breaker and stay open safely," he said.

While Covid-19 transmissions in the general community have dropped, the number of infections among foreign workers has gone up sharply in recent weeks.

Yesterday, there were 1,111 new coronavirus cases, lower than the high of 1,426 cases announced the previous day.

The total tally stands at 9,125.

"I know this has not been an easy time for everyone. We are making progress but we have not yet succeeded by a long way," he said.

"The results do show that the circuit breaker is working. Now we all need to do a little bit more, make best use of the next two weeks of the tightened circuit breaker and the four weeks of the extension beyond that."

He also appealed to Singaporeans to support, cooperate with, trust and have confidence in him and the Government, as it tries to bring infection numbers down decisively.

"Let us go all out to beat the virus and break the chain of transmission. We will overcome this together," he said.