Linfa Wang, a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, said elderly people had been shown to have weaker immune responses upon vaccination.
In Israel, which also has a high vaccination rate, about half of the 46 patients hospitalized in severe condition by early July had been vaccinated, and the majority were from risk groups. (Related: "Breakthrough" coronavirus cases still being reported, some even dying despite being fully vaccinated.)
Beginning Thursday, Singapore banned restaurant dining and gatherings of more than two people as the country reverted to Phase 2, also known as heightened alert.
Both indoor and outdoor food and beverage establishments, including hawker centers and food courts, will only be able to offer takeaway and delivery options during this period. The restrictions will last until Aug. 18. Just 10 days before the start of restrictions, the government allowed residents to dine in groups of five. The country's Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release that people should continue to limit their overall number of social gatherings to not more than two per day. Each household can also receive only two distinct visitors per day. This does not apply to grandchildren who are being cared for daily by their grandparents. Work-from-home will remain the default at workplaces and social gatherings at the workplace will not be allowed. Employers should continue to stagger the start times of employees who need to return to the workplace and implement flexible working hours. Strenuous indoor exercise classes are also not allowed. Other activities that require masks to be off – including personalized services such as facials, saunas and make-up services, singing and the playing of wind and brass instruments – are also banned. MOH said these restrictions will not apply to medical and dental consultations, but non-medical facial treatments will not be exempted from these restrictions"The objective now is to buy us time so that we can vaccinate more people, especially our seniors."
Wong said the tighter restrictions will be reviewed in two weeks, and the task force will decide whether to update the measures based on the COVID-19 situation at that point. Once the situation stabilizes, Singapore will have more lenient measures for those vaccinated, Wong said.Singapore has ramped up testing after clusters of infections involving karaoke lounge operations that are notorious for facilitating prostitution and gambling. They were temporarily allowed to operate as restaurants.
The country has reported more than 63,000 coronavirus infections overall, the bulk of those linked to outbreaks in dormitories of migrant workers last year.
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