“We will look at the whole range of social distancing measures,” he said at a press conference held at the National Press Centre.
The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that senior-centric activities by government agencies will be suspended for two weeks. Over time, the Government will have to ramp up and implement more social distancing measures, Mr Wong said.
READ: COVID-19: People's Association to suspend courses and activities for seniors
“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,” Mr Wong said.Singapore already has other social distancing measures like isolating patients, putting close contacts on quarantine and issuing Stay-Home Notices, he added. CNA
The above quotes from CNA show how serious the Singapore govt is taking this Covid19 threat to the wellbeing of Singaporeans. The latest spurt in number of new infected cases due to irresponsible social behaviour has prompted the govt to close down on many activities associated with senior citizens. The main point is to keep social mixing down to a minimum with social contacts to be kept at maybe a minimum of 2 metres apart to be safe. Big social gatherings are to be avoided.
The concept sounds very good and should be reasonably effective. The biggest loophole and unavoidable is the pack trains carrying commuters all over the islands. Many of them are less than 20 cm apart with some idiots unconsciously chose to stand very close to other commuters even if the train is not really full when they could keep a reasonable distance from other commuters. Most of these are wildlife from countries where sticking close to each other with no respect to the private space of a stranger is the norm. You can smell them whenever they are close to you in the trains.
So how to maintain the 2 metre distancing gap when the trains are carrying 1 or 2 million commuters daily? This is like putting money into a pocket with a big hole in it. Heheheh, 6.9m population or 10m or 15m population is the way to go.A serious infectious disease could wipe out the whole population within weeks.
What do you think?
Small pop of own citizens with breathing spaces and jobs for everyone don't want!
ReplyDeleteItchy backsides. Want to have 6.9 to 10 million rats struggling and stepping on each other tails.
Just for the sake of another 2 percentage point economic growth.
Kena infectious diseases how to control? Kena Recession and Depression how to have enough jobs for all?
LKY stopped at Two policy kena critised by those idiots who asked you to make love in small spaces and have more children.
Not grow even a grain of rice and vege. Want to feed 10 millions.
Water also sai chwee. MOT diseases and starvation will kill one by one.
Matland don't sell u water u are DEAD. Want to fight ah?
All for the sake of making more MONIES for their cronies in properties and others.
MOT, Dead ducks
The G4 PAP leaders avoided mentioning packed-like-sardines MRT cabins as they have no solution.
ReplyDeleteHi good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteLiving in this sardine packed very Very VERY very tiny city state with so many many many many many many many many instant citizens is like that lah!
What can you do?
Sponsored Assassin ASEAN and all and sundry from all over the World in tax payers MONIES.
ReplyDeleteThey, easy lifes don't even have to work part time in McDonald's for their tuition fees got so much free time start installing cameras and taking photos of female undergrads pan sai and bathing.
Also, hacking into apps for free ciggs and MONIES.
Own citizens no monies for tuition fees forego higher edu for their children.
What has the Society comes to with these imbecile leaders.
@ all
ReplyDeletesince I hold nothing but CONTEMPT for most humans, I have no problem with the 2-meter social distancing rule. My social distancing is measured in kilometers 🤟🤡
Anyway, you all should go to church, hug each other because "God is Love", shake hands, never washing them more than once a day, and spread the motherfuking contagion to bolster WHO's claim that this is now a pandemic.
I ♥️ Coronavirus because it kills off apeks and their fucked outdated ideas!
Got up lorry?⚰️☠️
Matilah NOT Ah Pek?
DeleteWho's talking
PAP's long term social distancing plan:
ReplyDeletePay you peanuts.
Pay themselves million dollar salaries.
@ Tom Hanks
ReplyDeleteLife is a box of chocolates Forest Gump
Alamak, Forest Gump kena. His wife also (Covid becomes Cupid 😎)
Cheer up Tom. As you reminded us all those years ago: SHIT HAPPENS.
https://youtu.be/edmqTODMZC4
I ♥️ Coronavirus, now on a successful world-tour changing the lives of thousands!
Hey Ah Loong !!!!
ReplyDeleteHow to have social distancing with your 10 million population target ??
You mad is it ?
Senile already ah ??
ReplyDelete@1015am
Hahaha all the best to you!
@ Q & A with Matilah:
ReplyDelete>> Lee Hsien Loong is already an apek.
You want him to die is it? <<
No. He should live. He runs Hotel Singapore extremely well and small timers like me can make a few bucks here, a few bucks there...so I don't mind him...although I like making fun of him.
I'm an Equal Opportunity Offender given the chance, I'll skewer and ridicule everyone and everything...even disabled people or children with terminal cancer. If I can find a "funny", I'm going to let fly, no holds barred.
That's my mission statement.
I ♥️ Coronavirus because the world needs more Gallows Humour! 🤡
Like Frog Outside Well said SURE go beneath more than 18 storeys HELL.
DeleteHandicapped also ridiculed.
Forget to add. Reborn as Matilah Virus.
DeleteWHO named Matilah-20
Cheers
@ Virgo
ReplyDeleteYes I'm ah pek. But I oso banana. Many Chinese people mati, but not bananas. HK only 3 dead, maybe they're bananas, maybe not.
So I'm not scared lah.
I ♥️ coronavirus.
Jurong west nanyang cc is supposed to have a breakfast gathering for 65 n above soon. Free sanitizers for attendees, as advertised on the PA notice board . Are they gonna to cancel the event or not? Not scared meh !so gunho...
ReplyDelete@ 1.17pm
DeleteI hope the event goes ahead.
We want the PAP grassroot leaders to get infected.
Hopefully, the infection will spread upwards to PAP Ministers.
China launches vaccine for Covid19. The vaccine has been injected on the creator and her team of scientists. The creator was a female one star general who also created the vaccine for SARS.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDotard Trump already LOST command of how to control the COVID-19.
National Guards deployed.
His Infamous Words: The COVID-19 Virus is labelled MAD IN CHINA.
He demanded that his underlining repeat after him.
What's A sore loser
@All,
ReplyDeleteLook at the infection rate trajectory.
China infections peaked by end-Feb and then stabilised & start to taper off. If we consider 1st January to be the start of things turning bad in China --- that's about 2 months for the virus to ramp up to its max potential.
So for Europe & US, that's looking at mid-May for the maximum damage both in terms of actual rate of infections, as well as psychologically.
By then the warmer summer weather in the Northern Hemisphere will also help kill & slow down the spread.
Of course the Southern Hemisphere like South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia & NZ will then be having their virus-conducive cold winter months.
3rd world countries in S. America & Africa will likely see millions kena the virus from May to Sep. But economically & globally speaking .... they're not that important to us .... except as suppliers of various commodities.
@ 229
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Got many messages from kaki living in China. Life is returning to normal now. If yur cuntry can tahan 2-6 months, everything will be ok lah, provided your healthcare system can tahan.
Great! I can finally visit Hotel Singapore again!
@229pm
ReplyDeleteHow about Sg?
those above 60 better watch out.
ReplyDeletethey are easier to die from this virus.
virus is created to rid old people so less pollution
@ imho
ReplyDeleteLess pollution, less bad ideas, less pettiness and negativity, less living in the past and thinking how great their achievements 40 years ago were (not anymore, move the fuck on lah you boring old fart), less public health spending....
The benefits are too many to list.
I ♥️ coronavirus. Nature's way of cleaning house!
@ kill the government
ReplyDeletehttp://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/03/09/Iranian-regime-figures-infected-and-killed-by-coronavirus.html?fbclid=IwAR0JBbVz-gtDIY88wO8wiHPRqO6Eh6AJj8T5CyMWsTQmWO9tLqtB071Iuw4#
Wah damn shiok. Coronavirus killing government motherfuckers.
Wah. My cock stand lah.
I ♥️ coronavirus, especially when it kills a government of arseholes, which is most (99.99%) governments!
PM Lee Hsien Loong's Address on the CoVid-19 on 12 March - Part 1
ReplyDeleteMy fellow Singaporeans, good evening.
Five weeks ago, I spoke to you on our COVID-19 situation.
Much has happened since then. So it is timely to update you again, and share with you what we can expect down the road. I will speak about three aspects of the issue: medical, economic and psychological.
On the medical front, we continue to see new cases in Singapore. Most either have travelled overseas, or can be traced to imported cases. Each time we have been able to isolate them, do contact tracing, and quarantine the close contacts. So our numbers have not blown up. But neither have we been able to eradicate the virus, despite our best efforts.
At the same time, around us, the number of cases is rising rapidly. China’s situation is stabilising, but new cases are emerging all over the world - in Europe, America, and the Middle East. Globally, the number of cases is doubling every 5 to 7 days. Hence today, the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic.
What does this mean? It means that WHO assesses that many countries will see full blown outbreaks, with sustained community transmission, like what has happened in South Korea and Italy. And unlike SARS, this outbreak will continue for some time – a year, and maybe longer.
The WHO named one key reason for the rapid spread: many countries had not taken the situation seriously enough – what the WHO called “alarming levels of inaction”. Here in Singapore, we have all along taken COVID-19 with the utmost seriousness. In fact, the WHO praised our efforts and held Singapore up as an example to emulate.
But we too face a serious situation. We expect more imported cases, and therefore new clusters and new waves of infection, this time coming from many countries rather than one or two. We have already imposed some travel restrictions, for example, for China, Iran, South Korea, Italy. We will have to tighten up further temporarily, though we cannot completely shut ourselves off from the world.
PM Lee Hsien Loong's Address on the CoVid-19 on 12 March - Part 2
ReplyDeleteWhat else must we do?
First, because COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, there are baseline things that we must get used to, like practising good personal hygiene, adopting new social norms and discouraging large gatherings, and generally, maintaining some physical distance from one another. That is why we already scaled down community activities, especially for the seniors.
And we can do more in other areas. For example, at religious gatherings. In South Korea, the cases spread through the Shincheonji church group. In Singapore, two of our big clusters happened in church groups. And several Singaporeans who attended a big international religious gathering in Kuala Lumpur recently have caught the virus. The issue is of course not religion itself, but that the virus can spread quickly to many people in crowded settings, like religious gatherings and services. That is why Saudi Arabia temporarily stopped umrah pilgrimages; and the Pope live-streamed his sermons to avoid crowds on Saint Peter’s Square. I hope Singaporeans understand that during this period we may need to shorten religious services, or reduce our attendance at such gatherings. Please work with your religious leaders to make these practical adjustments.
Second, we need to plan for a possible spike in COVID-19 cases. With very large numbers, if it happens, we will not be able to hospitalise and isolate every case like we do now. But we now know that the majority of patients, in fact 80% of them, only experience mild symptoms. The ones that are most at risk are the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure or lung problems. So with larger numbers, the sensible thing will be to hospitalise only the more serious cases, and encourage those with mild symptoms to see their family GP and rest at home – isolate themselves. This way, we focus resources on the seriously ill, speed up our response time, and hopefully, minimise the number of fatalities.
In the meantime, we are freeing up ICU and hospital beds and facilities, to create additional capacity to meet any surge in COVID-19 numbers. But rest assured, any Singaporean who needs urgent medical care, whether for COVID-19 or other illnesses, will be taken care of.
Besides medical plans, if there is a spike, we will also need additional social distancing measures. These will be temporary like suspending school, staggering work hours, or compulsory telecommuting. They will be extra “brakes”, to be implemented when we see a spike in cases. The extra brakes will slow down transmission of the virus, prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed, and help bring the numbers back down. After the situation improves, we can ease off and go back to the baseline precautions.
But let me emphasise this: the situation in Singapore remains under control. We are not going to DORSCON Red. We are not locking down our city like the Chinese, South Koreans or Italians have done. What we are doing now is to plan ahead for some of these more stringent measures, try them out, and prepare Singaporeans for when we actually need to implement them.
As we consider these next steps, one major concern we have is the impact on our economy.
PM Lee Hsien Loong's Address on the CoVid-19 on 12 March - Part 3
ReplyDeleteOur economy is taking a big hit. That is why we did the S$4 billion Support and Stabilisation Package in the Budget last month to help businesses, workers and households tide over the immediate period. This has helped. But with things still unfolding, we knew we might have to do more. The situation is especially serious for some sectors – hotels, aviation, hospitality, and freelancers in the gig economy. But nobody has been spared. Everyone feels the impact, to different degrees.
So the Government is working on a second package of measures. We will help our companies with their costs and cash-flow, to keep them afloat through the storm. We will help our workers keep their jobs, and retrain during their downtime, so that when things return to normal, our workers will be the first out of the gate, and immediately productive. And we will give those who are retrenched and unemployed, as well as their families, an extra helping hand to see through this difficult period.
I am sharing these plans with you to reassure you that we are on top of things, and thinking ahead. We anticipated the medical and economic consequences. I am confident that we can deal with them.
But what is also critical is the psychological aspect of this fight. Our frontline staff are working extremely hard to keep Singapore going - healthcare workers, immigration officers, civil servants, public transport workers, taxi drivers, cleaning staff. Singaporeans are cheering them on. The Government, for its part, has been open and transparent with our plans. When we made direct appeals to Singaporeans, for example, only wear face masks when unwell; or not to worry about our supermarkets running out of food or household items, people accepted our reassurances, and behaviour changed. I am grateful that most Singaporeans are responding calmly and responsibly. Thank you for your trust and support.
Singapore’s response has received international accolades. Underlying this is the social and psychological resilience of our people. What makes Singapore different from other countries is that we have confidence in each other, we feel that we are all in this together, and we do not leave anyone behind. This is SG United, we are SG United.
We will remain in this high risk state for some time to come. But if we keep up our guard, and take practical precautions to protect ourselves and our families, we will be able to keep our economy going, and carry on with our daily lives. In such a crisis, everyone has a part to play. I hope you will work with me and colleagues to keep our families safe, keep Singapore secure, and move forward together.
Thank you.
Source: CNA.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOpinion:
ReplyDeleteWhen the World Health organization declared that the corona-virus COVID-19 is now a World Pandemic, it means CODE RED. Full Stop.
All schools must now be closed! Don't play play with our young children's health and lives!
Talking about 2 metres social distancing is merely talking cock for the sake of talking if children in schools, sitting close to one another every single minute of the day when they are confined to classrooms during lessons, are allowed to carry on as usual.
If just one careless or irresponsible parent sent an infected child, without fever or other symptoms, to school as usual, nobody is the wiser. Taking temperatures is just for show. Nothing else. Not even an expert can detect if other children have been infected by this particular asymptomatic child.
So, why take unnecessary risks? Why wait for reactionary actions, instead of taking pro-active actions in anticipation of the high probability that this new corona-virus is capable of spreading and infecting ANYONE ANYWHERE ANY TIME without the slightest warning???
Arrogance and over-confidence must not be allowed to sneak into the minds of those with the responsibility to keep our children SAFE!
ERR ON CAUTION INSTEAD OF REGRET FOR NON-ACTION!
ReplyDeleteHealth officials have never seen a pandemic before that can be controlled. So talking about situation under control by US President or by Singapore PM is simply frivolous.
ReplyDelete