Virus Resurgence in Singapore Derails Economic Recovery

Following consecutive quarters of recovery, the latest setback means that Singapore’s full-year target of 6 percent GDP growth is unlikely. Hopes for a second-quarter expansion in Singapore’s economy have been dashed by a resurgence in the Covid-19 virus that has taken the city-state by surprise. The republic introduced tighter measures on Sunday to stem the spread of Covid-19, following a spike in the number of imported and community cases linked to the B1617 variant from India in recent weeks.

The new wave of Covid-19 restrictions, which will last until June 13, includes a ban on dining-in and a reduction of social gatherings from five people to two, as well as home-based learning at schools and default working from home.

The overall number of new cases in the community grew from 32 cases in the week before to 149 cases in the past week, while the number of unlinked cases in the community grew from seven cases in the week before to 42 cases in the past week, according to the Ministry of Health

The spike in community cases has also led to the second deferment of the Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble, planned for 26 May. Singapore Transport Minister S. Iswaran and Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau agreed at a meeting on Monday to review the situation and plan a new launch date.

According to the terms of the agreement between the two cities, the travel bubble will be closed for two weeks if the seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local cases is more than five in either Singapore or Hong Kong.

The World Economic Forum’s special annual meeting, which was temporarily relocated from Davos, Switzerland to the city-state, will also be scrapped, organizers said in a statement on Monday.

Regretfully, the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants combine to make it impossible to realize a global meeting with business, government, and civil society leaders from all over the world at the scale which was planned said the WEF.

The meeting, which was already pushed back from May, was scheduled for August 17 to 20 at Marina Bay Sands, with over 1,000 delegates expected to attend.