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

By DAVID RISING and ANNABELLE LIANG
Associated Press

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. 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.