Singapore’s total coronavirus cases have surged in recent weeks to one of the highest in Asia — but the country is not even halfway through its outbreak, according to Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong.
“This is still the first half of the marathon,” the minister told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
Wong, who co-heads Singapore’s task force to fight the virus, said the country would continue to uncover high numbers of new cases for some time due to “extensive testing” being carried out in dormitories that house migrant workers.
That group of workers, mostly men from other Asian countries, has accounted for around 87.6% of Singapore’s total 19,410 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, according to the health ministry. Cases found in those dormitories were the reason behind the surge in the number of infections in Singapore over the past month.
“We’re testing not only the workers who are reporting sick — for which the numbers are not very large — but we’re doing very extensive…
