TR EMERITUS

Let me give some context to add on to what Minister Gan had said just now about the measures we’ve taken. We started with a range of border control measures because the source of the epidemic of the infection came from abroad. We were amongst the first few countries to put in place border control measures, and it has helped to minimise the number of imported cases coming into Singapore. But as we’ve said before, we’ve emphasised, as the virus spreads to countries everywhere, countryspecific border control measures will become less relevant and effective because we are unable to shut Singapore from the world. We have to now shift our approach. We will still maintain some basic surveillance at the borders including using swab tests for travellers who come in, who are febrile or who have respiratory symptoms. But we will have to double down on the measures we can do within Singapore. We will look at the whole range of social distancing measures. We have already started social distancing because if you look at the measures like isolating patients, putting close contacts on quarantine, issuing Stay-Home Notices, these are social distancing measures which we have already started. Over time, we will have to ramp up and do more social distancing measures. Today, we are announcing something with regard to suspension of senior activities. Going forward, we will look at a fuller range of social distancing measures we can put in place including for public events, community activities, school closures, workplace social distancing including things like staggered hours, telecommuting as well as religious services too. We will cover a broad spectrum and we will see what we should put in place. We are very mindful that these measures can be very disruptive to the lives of Singaporeans. If we were to do all of them at one time, we will literally have to shut down our city and everything will grind to a halt. If we were to start some of them too early, people may become fatigued and then you cannot sustain the measures, and then it will not be effective either. So getting the measures right, and applying them at the right time, is critical. In that context, it is useful to think of this broad sweep of social distancing measures as something we can apply from time to time, as circuit breakers throughout the entire epidemic cycle. By doing so, we put in brakes to try and stop, or slow down the transmission chain, and flatten the epidemic curve. That should be our thinking around social distancing, and it’s something we are actively studying. We are putting in something today, and there will be more measures that we will continue to consider over the coming days and weeks. As I said, it is critical to implement the right measures at the right time, and we will do so based on the data, evidence and expert advice. Some of these measures will be implemented on a temporary basis, like what we are doing today, or over a discrete period of time. But there will also be measures put in place on a permanent basis – they ought to be part of our habits and our new way of life. One example is the whole SG Clean campaign – that’s why we started with that early. That’s something we should do, not just with this particular outbreak, but in fact we should adopt better hygiene standards at the personal level, at the public level. These are things we should be doing permanently. We will continue to emphasise some of these things – permanent measures like washing hands frequently with soap, improving hygiene standards in all our public places, use of common serving utensils rather than double-dipping. These are things we will continue to emphasise, and we want these things to be done on a permanent basis. For the other measures, not all of them will be permanent – some will be done over a temporary or discrete time period as I said. We can apply them at different phases through the epidemic cycle, and we will be looking at what is the appropriate time and juncture to introduce some of these additional measures.   * Remarks by Minister Lawrence Wong, Co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce on COVID-19, at Press Conference at National Press Centre on 10 March 2020.      Read More →

Whether cluster or not, community spread of the nCOVs in Singapore has alearly descended upon us. Nowadays, when I am outside, whenever I hear people cough, instinctively I will look in that direction. It is easy to tell people that life goes on and people shouldn't be unduly alarmed or worried etc but the realities on the ground is not so rosy. I really hate to say this but I consider that given the commencement of community spread of the nCOVs in Singapore and still there is no change or correction to that lhl's "you need not wear a mask if you are not sick" rubbish, MOH has failed in its mission to further protect Singaporeans by not disputing their king's advice that he is naked. Sadly, there are still suckers who believe lhl's koyoks. Of course like governments everywhere, the authorities will try their best to contain and control any further importation and the spread of the virus but what I worry is that their best efforts may not be enough and if we were to lose this battle and community spread becomes widespread, then really, it will be too late. Despite the pap government's putting on a brave front and telling Singaporeans that they have enough mask stockpiles lalala, the reality on the ground is that masks are severly out of stock everywhere one turns. The next best thing apart from encouraging people to wear mask is really to bombard the public daily and widely over news broadcast, print medias and on-line news to wash their hands properly with soap more often. That, the authorities have failed big time again. Sad. So sad. Worse comes to worst, the rich and the wealthy could fly away temporarily to escape the Wuhan virus scourge but the vast majority of our people cannot. Looking back at what the pap government has done or not done so far in their tackle of the nCOVs menace in Singapore, I am quietly confident that if I were in charge, I am likely to do a better job than most of them. They have done decently but equally, they have spewed plenty of hot air too. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

Click to enlarge Haha... What values do the PAP Ministers have? By telling Singaporeans "Life must go on as usual" when we are still in the midst of a crisis of unknown threats? What values do the PAP Ministers have when they resisted call to impose immigration controls on inbound persons from China right from the start of this crisis? If not for the over 100K online petition and persistent call from opposition leaders to impose such immigration controls, it would not have done it grudgingly. What values do the PAP Ministers have when they insisted to carry on with large scale celebration with a potential congregation of great number of people in Chingay Procession when what we actually need is Social Distancing to cut down the risk of infections? Worse still, what Values do the PAP Ministers it continued to hold the Airshow in spite of the raising of Dorscon to Orange, while we were already becoming an International transmission hub of Wuhan Virus via the Grand Hyatt Cluster of Business meeting? One thing for sure, PAP has transmitted that lax attitude of "Life Must Go On" to many Singaporeans who believe in them, with no mask put on in crowded places and no urgency in practicing Social Distancing. This is why the Jurong Safra cluster outbreak happens right now and these people are connected to People's Association which is under the control of PAP. Even after this cluster outbreak happens because of lax attitude and non existence of Social Distancing concept, SPH Chinese Newspapers division carried out yet another large gathering of dinners in Orchard Road in the name of helping the restaurant and Economy....!   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →