Despite variants, Singapore's COVID-19 strategy on track

SINGAPORE (AP) — When Singapore embarked upon its strategy of living with COVID-19, backed by one of the world's leading vaccine programs, the wealthy city-state saw a spike in its rate of infections, leading many to question whether the time was right.

But with the numbers now dropping as rapidly as they rose, there's cautious optimism that the widely watched plan has helped Singapore turn the corner in the pandemic, even with the discovery of the new worrisome omicron variant, and provide a better understanding of what is effective, and what isn't.

“I guess now COVID seems like it's just a normal flu to everybody,” said Glacier Chong, taking a break from shopping on Singapore's popular Orchard Road to people-watch by a fountain and listen to the Christmas music being piped out of large speakers lining the street.

“Everybody is getting used to it; it seems like if you got COVID it's the norm now. COVID seems like a curable disease.”

Part of that confidence comes from the numbers that Singapore has put up.

With 94% of its eligible population fully vaccinated and another 26% already with booster shots, even when the number of infected people started to rise, about 99% had no symptoms or only mild symptoms, meaning health care systems were under pressure but never overwhelmed. Deaths rose but remained low, and the majority were older people with underlying medical conditions, a disproportionate number of whom were unvaccinated.

Singapore was able to succeed in getting so many people vaccinated by ensuring there were few barriers to getting the shot, increasing difficulties for the unvaccinated — such as prohibiting them from dining in restaurants or going to malls — and a general confidence in the government and its approach, said Alex Cook, a specialist on infectious...