Singapore could stop counting its daily Covid case toll under new plans to live with the virus long-term.
Instead of keeping a daily tally of all infections, the country would only monitor hospital admissions, patients in intensive care and deaths.
The measure was put forward by Singapore's finance, business and health ministers as part of vision of a new normality as vaccines reduce the severity of the disease.
'We can't eradicate [Covid], but we can turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like influenza, hand, foot and mouth disease, or chickenpox, and get on with our lives,' the trio said.
Singapore may stop counting its daily Covid case totals as ministers lay out their vision for a 'new normal' in which the virus is treated like flu (pictured, Singapore's Covid cases)
Describing their vision for the future of the Covid pandemic, the ministers said the virus will move from pandemic to endemic as vaccines and improved treatments reduce its severity and the likelihood that people will die from it.
That means it will become part of daily life, similar to the way we currently treat flu.
'Because the chances of falling very ill from influenza are so low, people live with it,' the ministers wrote in a joint editorial in the Straits Times.
'They carry on with their daily activities even during the flu season, taking simple precautions or getting an annual flu jab.
'Doing so will be our priority in the coming months.'
Under their vision of the new normal, ministers say most infected people will be able to recover at home as vaccinated people need hospital treatment far less frequently.
Those treating them at home are also unlikely to become sick because they will also be protected with vaccines, they say.
That means there will be less emphasis on testing and contact-tracing every single case, and testing will instead be used at borders to stop the movement of dangerous variants and at large gatherings to stop them becoming super-spreader events.
