Singapore sends 2,000kg of medical supplies to Chinese military hospitals

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) delivered more than 2,000kg of medical supplies “earlier this week”  to China for distribution at military hospitals there, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said.

In a Facebook post on Friday (Feb 21) evening, Dr Ng said that during the Singapore Airshow held from Feb 11 to 16, the Ba Yi aerobatics team from China had taken “stringent measures to ensure that they could keep performing here”.

“To reciprocate their friendship, (Mindef) delivered over 2,000kg of medical supplies to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to distribute to their military hospitals.” 

The aerobatics team was allowed to come here earlier this month despite a travel ban on recent visitors to China. The Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak had started from Wuhan city in Hubei province before spreading to other parts of China and to other countries.

Before the airshow, Dr Ng had met the Chinese crew at Changi Air Base on Feb 7 and shook hands with them. 

He said in the Facebook post that Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s Ambassador to China, and Colonel Steven Tan, Defence Attache, handed the contribution of medical aids to a representative of the PLA. 

“The fight in this outbreak is against the virus, and friends can reach out to each other in this time of need.” 

In an announcement on Feb 16, two days before his Budget statement, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said that to help with the global fight against the virus, Singapore would be contributing to China test kits for the virus that would allow it to conduct 20,000 tests.

Since the outbreak, Singapore’s researchers — along with the healthcare community and companies — have been working hard behind the scenes and collaborating with scientists from around the world, Mr Heng added.

“China is putting in significant effort, and doing the best they can. All of us will benefit from China’s success in overcoming the outbreak.” 

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article, we got the dates of the Singapore Airshow wrong. It has been amended. We are sorry for the error.