The city-state is continuing with community-wide restrictions as case numbers remain high and hospital capacity stretched.
Singapore's COVID-19 measures will be extended for another month until November 21, with a review at the two-week mark, the multi-ministry task force in charge of handling the virus announced on Wednesday evening.
The taskforce also announced an additional S$640 million ($476.9 million) support package to help companies and individuals during this period.
Hospitals Overwhelmed
The city-state's «stabilization phase,» which was implemented to minimise the strain on overall healthcare capacity, was to last until October 24. However, the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU has continued to rise. Currently, social gatherings are limited to two persons, and working from home is the default.
«Our medical personnel are stretched and fatigued. While we are trying to reinforce the team, it will take time for these reinforcements to come in. At the current situation, we face considerable risk of the healthcare system being overwhelmed,» Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday.
Travel Possible
At the same time, those with the means to travel have been snapping up tickets under Singapore's Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme, which allows two-way travel for fully vaccinated travellers from a limited number of countries without quarantine. The scheme was just expanded to 11 countries, causing the Singapore Airlines website to crash temporarily and long queues at its service center.
On Wednesday, there were 3,862 new infections and 18 new deaths related to the virus, the Ministry of Health said. The death toll currently stands at 264.
