Singapore tackles second-wave cases

Doubts raised

Military camps, exhibition centers and vacant public housing blocks have been designated to temporarily separate healthy essential workers from those quarantined in dormitories

Doubts have been raised over the effectiveness of quarantining large numbers in confined areas, based on the case of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which initially reported just a few confirmed cases. However, these grew to become the largest cluster outside China for weeks.

The question has also been raised of whether workers living in tight spaces can practice social distancing, which remains one of the most effective ways to prevent the virus spreading.

Transient Workers Count Too, a charity group helping migrant workers, said in a statement: "When social distancing in dormitory rooms with 12 to 20 men per room is effectively impossible, should one worker in a room be infected－and he could be asymptomatic－the repeated contact he has with his roommates because of confinement would heighten the risk to his mates. The infection rate in the dorm could increase dramatically."

The fear is that in the next week or so, the number of confirmed cases will rise significantly.

Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota in the United States, said, "For a country that has been praised internationally for how it dealt with the pandemic, what Singapore is really showing the rest of the world is that this is just a difficult virus to beat back and keep down."