ESM Goh calls on WHO and health professionals to study different countries’ responses to Covid-19

SINGAPORE — Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health professionals to conduct an in-depth study of how the different countries dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic “when the situation stabilises”.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (May 5), the former prime minister lamented the lack of global leadership in tackling the coronavirus, and expressed fears for “the next pandemic (that might) combine the infectiousness of Covid-19 and the deadliness of Sars, however unlikely that may seem now”.

Sars, or the severe acute respiratory syndrome, infected more than 8,000 people around the world, with a death toll of 774. It first hit Singapore in March 2003, infecting 238 people and killing 33.

Mr Goh, who was Singapore’s Prime Minister from 1990 to 2004, likened the Covid-19 pandemic to a “common global examination of the toughest order”, which would test the “character and resolve of national leaders, governments and societies”.

On his call for an in-depth study, he said: “The purpose is not to grade each country’s response, but to identify successes, strengths, lapses and blind spots. All countries need to take a serious look at their systems and practices in anticipation of the next pandemic, as indeed Singapore will be doing.”

He noted that it was “sad” and “telling” that there is no global leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I hope that there will be coordinated global leadership right from the start when the next pandemic comes around. Tackling transboundary issues requires cooperation (among) all countries,” said Mr Goh.

As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Singapore was 19,410 — the vast majority of whom are migrant workers living in cramped dormitories.

Globally, the number of Covid-19 infections has reached almost 3.6 million since the virus surfaced in China late last year.

On Monday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs a multi-ministry task force leading Singapore's fight against Covid-19, reiterated that the Government will conduct a review of its response to the pandemic, just as it had done for previous crises including Sars.

He was responding to suggestions from Nominated Members of Parliament Walter Theseira and Anthea Ong, who asked for an inquiry to be convened to look into the cause of the outbreak at foreign worker dormitories. 

But the focus now is to bring the outbreak under control within the local community and in the dormitories, said Mr Wong, stressing that the authorities are “now still in the heat of battle”.

“At the right time, we will comprehensively review this pandemic and our responses — not just the outbreak in the dormitories, but the entire crisis from start to end and our overall response, and we will seek to learn and improve,” he said.

Mr Wong added: “I have no doubt that we will find many things where we could have done better, and many changes that we should make to be better prepared the next time.”