Finance Minister Lawrence Wong urges patience on reopening further

SINGAPORE - Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Saturday (Oct 2) called for patience from those who would like to see Singapore reopen sooner.

He added that people should not get too anxious or fearful about the total number of new cases being reported daily.

"Our overall strategy (for) reopening has not changed, but this is the first time we are experiencing such a big wave and it is causing tremendous stress on our healthcare system and our healthcare workers," he said at a press conference held by the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19.

His comments come amid calls by some people calling for restrictions to be lifted sooner, and those on the other end of the spectrum calling for a lockdown in the wake of the recent surge in Covid-19 transmissions in the community.

He said: "When we see such a surge of cases during these few days, several thousand a day, I know it can be quite worrying, and you have two sorts of very sharp reactions from different people.

"One group says, look, it's so high, let's quickly lock down and bring cases down. Another group says, well, this is completely to be expected. After all, we talked about living with Covid-19, so move forward."

Kurohi, R. (2021, October 2). Finance Minister Lawrence Wong urges patience on reopening further. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/lawrence-wong-urges-patience-on-reopening-spore-further