Circuit Breaker

How to balance the work to do with the work of improvement

Shutting down a country due to coronavirus seemed unthinkable three months back. When China sealed off Wuhan and the surrounding areas in Hubei province, Western commentators considered this a draconian measure. Then six weeks later, Italy went on a full shutdown, soon followed by other countries in Europe, Canada, the US and elsewhere.

Singapore had been an outlier. While countries declared lockdowns, Singapore was wide open with malls, restaurants, and entertainment venues abuzz with people. Then on April 3rd, Singapore declared a lockdown till May 4th in what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called a “circuit breaker”.

I was in Singapore for most of March. While news of COVID-19 was hard to escape, life seemed normal. Parks were teeming with people, malls had plenty of shoppers, and restaurants were busy. Then as the number of cases zoomed upwards, restrictions were added. Travel into Singapore for short term visitors was banned. The day I left, bars and entertainment venues were ordered closed.

It is no great surprise that Singapore went on full lockdown. Pausing all social gathering for a month to stop further spread of the virus makes sense. With more and more cases cropping up where contact tracing could not be established, it was a necessity given that carriers are asymptomatic for several days. With the circuit breaker in place, the theory is that the virus has nowhere to go.