SINGAPORE — Singapore has refrained from tightening social-distancing measures even as the highly infectious delta variant has driven Covid-19 cases up sharply, while the country shifts to a long-term strategy of living with the coronavirus.

“This rapid and exponential rise in daily infections that we are experiencing now is what every country that seeks to live with Covid-19 has to go through at some point,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a media briefing Friday.

Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates globally, with 81% of the population fully vaccinated, data from the health ministry showed.