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Govt has achieved 'clear' positive outcomes in dealing with Covid-19 so far, says Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE — It is “quite clear” the Government has managed to achieve several positive outcomes in its battle against Covid-19, including bringing down infection rates in the community significantly and maintaining a fatality rate that is among the lowest in the world.

Mr Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the task force that is handling Singapore's Covid-19 response, said he does not know of any other country that has mounted "as significant an operation as Singapore has in taking care of their migrant workers".

Mr Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the task force that is handling Singapore's Covid-19 response, said he does not know of any other country that has mounted "as significant an operation as Singapore has in taking care of their migrant workers".

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  • Mr Lawrence Wong was asked to assess the PAP Government’s performance in dealing with Covid-19
  • Singaporeans will have to judge at the end of the day, he said
  • It is "quite clear" if one looks at the outcomes, such as the reduction in community infection rates

 

SINGAPORE — It is “quite clear” the Government has managed to achieve several positive outcomes in its battle against Covid-19, including bringing down infection rates in the community significantly and maintaining a fatality rate that is among the lowest in the world. 

Mr Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the governmental task force that is handling Singapore’s response to the pandemic, said this on Tuesday (July 7) when he was asked to assess the People Action Party Government’s performance in dealing with Covid-19, which has been questioned by some opposition parties during the ongoing election hustings.

“At the end of the day, Singaporeans will have to judge. We are in an election campaign now. We have been transparent, upfront about the way we dealt with Covid-19,” he said during a media briefing by the task force.

“If you look at what we have achieved up till now, the outcomes are quite clear: We have been able to bring down infection rates in the community significantly and protected many Singaporeans, especially vulnerable ones, and we have been able to achieve a fatality rate which is among the lowest in the world.”

Singapore has also put in a “huge effort” to battle the outbreak of infections in the foreign worker dormitories, he added.

“I do not know of any other country that has mounted as significant an operation as Singapore has in taking care of their migrant workers.”

Mr Wong, who was minister of national development before Parliament was dissolved, said that to date, more than half of the workers in these dormitories have been tested for Covid-19. By the end of this month, the authorities hope to have 80 per cent of workers tested. 

“We have not only taken care of the health of workers, we have also taken care of their well-being, their food, their salary... making sure they are paid,” he said.

“We know they are an important part of our society and we want to do everything we can to take care of them, because they have contributed much to Singapore.”

A question was also asked about an advisory issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to employers in February that has become an issue of contention between the Government and infectious disease expert Paul Tambyah, who is also running in the election with the Singapore Democratic Party.

At a forum last Friday, Dr Tambyah had criticised the advisory. A correction direction under the anti-fake news law was later issued against several media outlets that reported his comments. 

In a statement on the correction direction, the alternate authority at MOM said that Dr Tambyah had made three false statements: That the advisory was made without the advice of public health professionals, that it stated employers would lose their work pass privileges if they took their workers to get Covid-19 testing, and that MOM had actively discouraged the testing of workers.

Dr Tambyah has since argued that he never said that MOM issued the advisory unilaterally, and that the advisory did discourage employers from getting their workers tested.

During the task force briefing on Tuesday, Dr Kenneth Mak, director of medical services at the Ministry of Health (MOH), clarified that MOM issued the advisory because MOH had asked it to do so.

And this was because MOH had received feedback from hospitals that they were worried their resources would be overrun, as they were seeing an increasing number of employers taking their asymptomatic workers to test for Covid-19 and asking for certificates or memos to be issued to these workers to certify them as fit and free of the coronavirus.

“This raised alarm bells among senior officials in hospitals — they cannot issue such things in good faith,” he said. 

A circular was then sent out. About a week later, a more strongly worded second advisory was issued because employers persisted in sending workers to the accident and emergency departments of hospitals for Covid-19 testing despite the first circular, Dr Mak added.

‘NO RETURN TO PHASE ONE AFTER ELECTIONS’

Dr Mak also noted that there has been some talk on social media that after the July 10 polls, the Government will clamp down on activities and reinstate safety measures that were in place during first phase of Singapore’s reopening from the circuit breaker that restricted movement and non-essential business activities.

“That’s not the case, but we are working on contingencies and we are mindful that we may see clusters emerging in various places,” he said. 

Mr Wong added that the task force “certainly cannot rule out having to impose additional restrictions or even having to put in place another nationwide circuit breaker down the road”, but it will try “very hard” not to have to go down that path. 

“And we are able to do so because we now have an expanded toolkit of control measures, and that's what we have been building up in the past few months,” he said.

These include increased testing capacity, the ability to take more targeted and swifter actions whenever there is a positive Covid-19 case, and expanded contact-tracing capacity, he said.

Related topics

Covid-19 coronavirus Lawrence Wong Singapore General Election PAP

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