Covid-19: Tighter border measures partly due to Asean visitors coming to S’pore to seek treatment, says Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE — The tighter border-control measures that Singapore will impose from Monday (March 16) are partly in response to visitors from other Asean countries who came with the express intent of seeking medical care, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said on Sunday.

Asean is short for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a grouping of 10 countries in the region.

The authorities are concerned that this pool of visitors will rise, Mr Wong told a press briefing at the National Press Centre along Old Hill Street.

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“It is really hard for us to cope with this additional demand during this critical period when our healthcare resources are already stretched,” said Mr Wong.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) had announced that from March 7, visitors holding short-term visit passes who sought treatment for Covid-19 in Singapore would have to pay for their treatment. The ministry had previously said that the Government would pay the full hospital bills incurred by all Covid-19 patients in public hospitals.

And from 11.59pm on March 16, all travellers entering Singapore with recent travel history to Asean countries, Japan, Switzerland or the United Kingdom in the last fortnight will be issued a 14-day stay-home notice, as part of the Government’s latest effort to slow the spread of Covid-19.

In addition, all short-term visitors who are nationals of any Asean country will have to submit health information to the Singapore overseas mission in their country before travelling to Singapore. The submission must be approved by Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) before they travel to the city-state, and will be verified by officials from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority at Singapore’s checkpoints.

Aside from Singapore, the other nine Asean countries are Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Brunei, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The new rules do not apply to Singaporeans and Malaysians using the Republic's sea and land crossings with Malaysia, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook post.

The restrictions will also not have an impact on the supply of food and other essentials between Singapore and Malaysia as drivers of goods vehicles will be able to enter as per normal, he added.

Still, a Singapore-Malaysia working group with the task of controlling and preventing the spread of the disease will work on separate measures for these travellers.

ASEAN VISITORS MAY BE BARRED FROM ENTERING IF UNWELL

Mr Wong said that the authorities may bar Asean visitors from entering, depending on their health condition.

“Our priority during this period has to be to ensure that our healthcare resources are focused on helping Singaporeans, and if there are Singaporeans who are sick and who are infected, we have to ensure that we have adequate intensive-care-unit and healthcare capacity to take care of them,” he said in response to a question from TODAY.

Besides reducing the import of cases, the city-state does not want to see a surge in people with symptoms of Covid-19 arriving to be tested and treated here, Mr Wong said.

“We understand why they would like to do so and we would certainly like to help them, but if there is a sudden surge, we do not have the capacity to do so and the capacity of our healthcare system must be prioritised for Singaporeans,” he added.

Asked which Asean country the Government was most concerned about, Mr Wong said that Singapore would be concerned about a rise in visitors arriving from anywhere in Asean seeking treatment, particularly at such a critical time.

Even so, Mr Wong said recent cases seen here were largely from Indonesia. They were symptomatic, tested positive for Covid-19, and are now hospitalised or receiving intensive care, he added.

For instance, an 83-year-old Indonesian man and a 76-year-old Indonesian woman, known as Cases 181 and 182, had arrived in Singapore on March 9. The man reported an onset of symptoms on March 8 in Indonesia, while the woman had symptoms the day they came here. They went to the emergency department of Gleneagles Hospital on March 10.

When asked if these two patients had come to Singapore to seek treatment and if they received a swab test for coronavirus, Mr Wong said he did not have details and referred TODAY to the MOH.

MOH did not immediately return a request for comment.

There was also Case 212, a 64-year-old Indonesian man who arrived in Singapore from Indonesia on March 13. He is in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

The patient reported an onset of symptoms on March 9 and had been hospitalised in Indonesia for pneumonia. After arriving in Singapore on March 13, he sought treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and was referred to the NCID. The next morning, he tested positive for Covid-19. 

Ultimately, Mr Wong said the latest import and border controls imposed on visitors from other Asean countries followed reports of patients who already knew they were symptomatic when travelling and were sent straight to the NCID or a hospital on arrival.

“We have had some of these cases. We are concerned that the numbers may go up,” he said.

NEW MEASURES WILL DEEPEN IMPACT ON TOURISM

Mr Wong acknowledged that the latest measures would deepen the impact on tourism, but he noted that tourism had already taken a very significant hit before these measures were rolled out.

He said few people were travelling anyway, now that the virus has been declared a global pandemic, and countries around the world have rolled out more travel restrictions and stringent measures.

“So travel has been and will continue to be impacted, and if the virus goes on for a few more months, that impact is going to be severe,” he said.

He reiterated that the Government is working on a second stimulus package, first disclosed by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat last week, to cushion the impact.

The Government’s first S$4 billion stabilisation and support package was unveiled during the Budget last month, with measures to cushion the blow of Covid-19 on local businesses and workers.

“We are very mindful of the impact,” said Mr Wong.