There is an insidious reason why the Singapore government is covering up the number of daily testing: Political pressure.
The deliberate cover up mask the actual rate of infection within the population.
Without knowing the number of tests done each day, the reported new cases is meaningless. For example, 548 new cases were reported yesterday, with 4 being so-called community cases. If the government tested only 40 suspect cases from the community, the hit rate is as high as 10%.
An average daily sample can then derive the general infection rate in the population.
Singapore report single digit infection for community cases, simply because very few tests were carried out.
Notorious for publishing manipulated statistics to boast its reputation, the Singapore ruling party PAP dictatorship is now using the community infection rate as basis to reopen the economy.
On paper, this looks like good news with people returning back to work and getting a bit more freedom. In the very short term that is.
Without ramping up on community testing, the infected individuals are going under the radar and their exposure will exponentially increase when they get back to work.
The question now is why the Singapore government not observing proper procedures of reopening the economy i.e. mass testing over a month, like the rest of the world has done. The answer came none other from PAP Minister Chan Chun Sing, who recently told Bloomberg that there is “not much time left” to call for an election.
Reopening the economy will shore up political support, giving the government a false sense of success that the outbreak has been contained. The PAP will call for a snap election to be quickly conducted within a month, campaigning on the usual false promises of solidarity and unity.
Singapore is handling the coronavirus the way politicians wanted, and this is the sole reason why it is now the biggest COVID-19 country in Asia today. More will be infected, more will die and more will go poorer without employment for a longer period.
Singaporean voters should be very careful which politician get to stay in power, lest they start making comments after the election saying “I wish I had not voted for the PAP”.
Alex Tan
STR Editor