Taken (not in whole) from a well articulated piece in the Straits Times, written by Salma Khalik:

Cases have stabilised and infection numbers are no longer doubling every few days the way they were since last month; increasing numbers of infected people suffer from only mild or no symptoms; and there has been a drop in the number of older people getting infected.

So why continue keeping the entire nation in a state of semi-lockdown?

While the battle against Covid-19 is tough, one wonders why existing measures need to be extended for another month.

With 84 per cent of the population already fully vaccinated, and with more than 600,000 people having received their booster shots, the vast majority is well protected against Covid-19.

By all means continue with the vaccine-differentiated measures, so people who are not vaccinated but still want to go out are protected in spite of themselves.

But there is no real need for the 4.6 million people who are fully vaccinated and the more than 600,000 who have received their booster shots to continue facing stringent restrictions for another month. Let these people, who heeded the Government's call to get vaccinated, eat and socialise in larger groups. Let the children play together, and families do things together outside their homes.

The number of people who remain unvaccinated is not going to change much over the next few months. Those who want to and can get vaccinated have already done so.

Yes, it does make sense to slow down the rate of infection so hospital beds do not fill up too quickly.

Mr Ong's target is to build up immunity against Covid-19 in the nation through booster shots (Didn't we say the same thing early this year about enough people getting fully vaccinated?) as well as having more people catch the virus while experiencing only mild flu-like symptoms so their antibodies and immunity will build up over time so we "will see cases falling, and then we can open up social economic activities without cases rising very rapidly".

But when will this happen? So far, only about 3 per cent of the population has become infected. At this rate, it will take years to achieve the level of immunity Mr Ong is aiming for. This is especially so, since there is a question mark over how long antibodies will stay high after the third vaccine jab.

At this rate, will there ever be a right time to roll back restrictions? Perhaps it's time to bite the bullet and relax the curbs instead of delaying in the face of the inevitable.