Hi everyone

I thought I would post a short update as we are entering 2022, nearly two years since children in Singapore have been unable to play any team sports, whether just training within their club or in a competitive interclub  environment.

Two of my sons got Covid during our recent trip overseas. I also got it.  In fact, so many people have it now in Europe, the US and Australia that everyone who hasn’t yet is expecting to get it.  My sons were slightly unwell for 24h to 48h with mild symptoms including headache and low-grade fever.  I was slightly more shaken up but feeling no worse than with a bad cold that goes away after a week or so.

This experience comforted me in continuing to be vocal about team sports for children in Singapore (and generally advocating larger gatherings within schools at recess, at playgrounds…), as the benefits this would bring to our children ought to outweigh the risks this would generate for a 95%+ vaccinated community.

We surely can and should be grateful for the way Singapore has managed many aspects of the pandemic: minimizing casualties, keeping schools mostly open, not imposing ultra-strict lockdown measures like in some other countries, achieving one of the highest vaccination rates in the world in record time, and opening up its borders to allow people to travel and see loved ones overseas.  In the past 3 to 4 months, we saw how Singapore can be so efficient at making things happen, once decisions have been made. One of the best examples is Changi airport, and how fast one gets to clear customs, collects luggage and takes the PCR tests after landing. Given all the paperwork and pre-departure/arrival constraints, who would have thought it would be still possible to be home one hour after landing? This is why despite all my frustrations, I have a lot of respect for Singapore.

Unfortunately when it comes to children, and their ability to just be children (have a birthday party, play sports, sit down at the “children table” while mum and dad are with their friends) – we are really not there yet here in Singapore. I really hope that full-squad team sports will be back for all as soon as a decent percentage of the 5-12yo children are vaccinated, and that unvaccinated children will not eventually be penalized.   I personally support vaccination but can understand some parents might be reticent about it, and it would be upsetting to end up with vaccinated differentiated measures for children under 12, even more so after the two years they have been through.

Please keep sharing and supporting this initiative. It has been a long tunnel, yet there is still hardly any light for children and team sports so long as the “group gathering cap” continues to apply to all situations without any exceptions.

I am adding a few comments from various university professors who were quoted in a recent ST article. May their suggestions be heard and supported.

Thanks

Mickael

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Health experts (...) expect domestic and border measures to be eased further this year in spite of the Omicron variant.

Professor Dale Fisher, senior consultant at the National University Hospital's Division of Infectious Diseases, said it would be reasonable to ease border measures once the spread of Omicron in Singapore reaches levels seen overseas.

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Professor Josip Car, the director at the Centre for Population Health Sciences at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Nanyang Technological University, said that given Singapore's high dependence on international trade and commerce, it is likely that the Government will take measures to sustain these sectors.

He hopes to see some restrictive measures at the workplace and on social gatherings eased.

Prof Car added that the biggest challenge of Covid-19 is that every measure to protect the community from the virus may lead to outcomes which negatively impact people's health and well-being.

"Therefore, we must consider these 'side effects' of each and every existing measure thoroughly when deciding whether to sustain, gradually reduce or remove them entirely in 2022 to minimise and heal the harm caused."

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Associate Professor Natasha Howard from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said living with Covid-19 would mean not routinely wearing masks, getting tested or using TraceTogether for contact tracing, among other things.

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Prof Clapham said such an endemic state would mean fewer Covid-19 measures, and considerably less impact on people's lives.

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Asked what might happen if Singapore adopts an endemic approach before the global Omicron situation stabilises, Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, felt the cost would be "very low", given the country's strong vaccination response and its resilient and prepared healthcare sector.

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Associate Professor Alex Cook, who is vice-dean of research at the school, said it would be overly risk-averse to maintain a pandemic posture after primary school pupils are vaccinated and adults have taken their boosters, and once Singapore is confident it can ride out the Omicron wave.