Singapore PM Pushes for Living With Covid, Without the Fear

Singapore can’t stay ‘locked down and closed off indefinitely’
Lee addressed split in broader society over pace of reopening

Lee Hsien Loong at a Covid-19 test site set up at a Housing & Development Board (HDB) public housing estate in the Ang Mo Kio area of Singapore, earlier in July.Photographer: Wei Leng Tay/Bloomberg

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By Philip Heijmans

October 9, 2021 at 4:27 AM UTC

Updated on

October 9, 2021 at 5:37 AM UTC

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Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants to push on with the strategy of living with Covid-19 without being paralyzed by fear, weighing in on a divisive issue about the pace of opening up a trade-reliant economy with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Lee said in a televised address that Singapore can’t stay “locked down and closed off indefinitely,” but at the same time there will be “quite many Covid-19-cases for some time to come.” He used the 24-minute speech on Saturday to call for unity for the next few months and address a split in wider society between keeping Covid-zero measures in place and reopening quickly in step with other advanced economies.