Update on Whole-of-Government Response to COVID-19

1.59 pm

The Minister for Health (Mr Gan Kim Yong): Mr Speaker, Members. Minister Lawrence Wong and I first spoke about COVID-19 in Parliament in January. And I updated Members again during the COS debate earlier this month. The situation continues to evolve rapidly and we would like to take this opportunity to provide a further update on the latest situation and our strategy going forward. As the task force involves multiple Ministries, may I have your permission, Mr Speaker, to invite the relevant Ministers to respond to clarifications on their respective responsibilities?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: As of yesterday, there are more than 370,000 COVID-19 cases and over 16,500 fatalities from the disease worldwide, and the epicentre has shifted to Europe and, perhaps, United States. The number of deaths in Italy alone has exceeded that in China. World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March.

How the outbreak develops globally will depend on the strategies and efforts of countries around the world. WHO has advised that we can still change the course of the pandemic if all countries take the necessary actions to contain the outbreak.

Otherwise, we will continue to see the number of affected countries and cases rise rapidly. Regions such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, had experienced a reduction in the number of cases a few weeks ago, but have started to see increases in new cases in the past few days driven by imported cases, arising mainly from residents returning from abroad. We face similar challenges.

Currently, in Singapore, we have 558 confirmed cases, of which two have passed away; 155 have been discharged and most of the rest remain stable or are improving. From late-January to February, Singapore saw an initial wave of imported cases from China. Some of these resulted in several local transmission chains, such as the Life Church and Missions and Grace Assembly of God combined cluster which resulted in 31 cases.

However, in recent weeks, we are seeing a second wave of imported cases. In the past week alone, the number of cases in Singapore more than doubled, from 266 to 558 cases. Almost 80% of these new cases were imported, all from countries other than China even though we continued to see around 1,000 residents and long-term pass holders return from China in the past week. The top three sources of importation to Singapore are the United Kingdom, the United States and Indonesia.

And over the coming weeks, the number of cases will continue to rise, as some of our around 200,000 overseas Singaporeans return home from all over the world.

We have slowed the local spread thus far through a three-pronged approach: first, reducing importation; second, detecting and isolating cases early; and third, emphasising social responsibility and good personal hygiene habits.

To reduce the risk of importation, we have stemmed the inflow of travellers by imposing border controls and issued travel advisories to advise Singaporeans to defer their travel plans until the situation around the world is under control. Minister Lawrence Wong will elaborate on this later in his speech.

We have also strengthened checks at our borders to detect and isolate cases before they come into contact with the Singapore community. For example, since January, we have progressively put in place temperature screening, health checks and swabbing at all our checkpoints. All who meet the suspect case definition are conveyed directly to the hospital, while all symptomatic travellers as well as some selected travellers are swabbed as a precautionary measure.

Beyond our checkpoints, we have also put in place a system to detect cases early, through surveillance at hospitals, polyclinics as well as Public Health Preparedness Clinics.

We have re-activated Public Health Preparedness Clinics just over a month ago and today, we have more than 900 clinics offering subsidised consultation and treatment for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents with respiratory illnesses. Singapore residents have benefited from more than 267,000 subsidised attendances at these clinics thus far, on top of that at our polyclinics.

To date, we have done around 39,000 tests for COVID-19. This translates to about 6,800 tests per million people in Singapore, compared with around 6,500 in South Korea and about 1,000 in Taiwan. These tests are important in helping us to detect as many cases as possible and as early as possible.

The moment a case is confirmed, we activate contact tracing to identify close contacts and quarantine them as soon as possible, so as to reduce further spread of the disease.

The Government has put in place many measures to reduce imported cases, and to trace and isolate any such cases as soon as possible to prevent spread. But every one of us needs to play our part in practising good personal hygiene, social responsibility and safe distancing to further reduce the risk of local transmission. We announced several safe distancing measures yesterday. Minister Lawrence Wong will elaborate on these later. I hope that Singaporeans will support these measures and keep up good hygiene habits which will play an increasingly important role in our fight against COVID-19.

During the COS debate, I mentioned Singapore's efforts in developing research and knowledge on COVID-19 and sharing these with other countries. There is an article today in today's paper about an innovative rapid test kit being developed by A*STAR's researchers. We hope they will go to trial soon and give us an additional weaponry against COVID-19.

For treatment, a COVID-19 therapeutic workgroup comprising members from various hospitals across different disciplines as well as Health Sciences Authority or HSA, has been set up to work on guidelines for repurposed drugs with antiviral activity, such as Lopinavir-ritonavir, Interferon Beta-1B and hydroxychloroquine, to treat infected patients in Singapore.

The National Centre for Infectious Diseases or NCID, and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, together with Singapore Blood Blank, have initiated donor recruitment to collect convalescent blood plasma from recovered patients to treat other COVID-19 patients. Our doctors have also been participating in international clinical trials, with collaborators such as the US National Institutes of Health.

For vaccines, scientists all over the world have successfully isolated and cultured the virus, which will aid the development of a vaccine. The international community is also working together to identify vaccine candidates and conduct clinical trials. For example, some institutes such as Moderna Inc have already started human trials as of last week. In Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School is working with Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations or CEPI, and international partners to develop a clinical trial for a vaccine, with plans to start testing sometime this year. With all these on-going efforts, WHO estimates that the earliest a vaccine will be ready would likely be sometime next year.

We do not know how long the pandemic will last, but we have to plan on the basis that COVID-19 will be with us for a long while, maybe till the end of the year or longer and ensure that we have the resources and capabilities to see us through. COVID-19 has also taken a toll on our economy. The impact will extend way beyond the pandemic. Many Singaporeans and businesses will need to make adjustments as this is not something that will be over quickly. The measures we announced yesterday will impact many businesses and workers. The Government will introduce greater support for the economy and our workers in response to this situation.

Members of Parliament have asked about healthcare capacity. We will ensure that we have sufficient capacity to meet our healthcare needs not only for COVID-19 patients but also for other patients.

We had invested significantly in the past to ensure that we have sufficient healthcare capacity to manage infectious outbreaks. The 330-bed NCID was purpose-built with spare capacity and can be further increased to over 500 beds if need be.

To preserve capacity and resources for those who most need it, clinicians at our public hospitals had earlier reviewed their patients and deferred non-urgent appointments and elective procedures where clinically appropriate to do so. They have continued to see patients with higher needs to ensure that they receive timely care. When appointments had to be deferred, the public hospitals have worked to ensure that patients received sufficient supportive care.

We are also exploring collaborations with private hospitals for some non-COVID-19 patients to be cared for there instead. We already have on-going collaborations with some of them and some of these can be stepped up so that we can preserve capacity in our public hospitals to manage the outbreak. Patients transferred to these private hospitals through such collaborations will continue to pay similar rates they would have paid at our public hospitals.

The most important resource, actually, is our healthcare staff. They have been working tirelessly to make sure that our patients, COVID-19 or otherwise, are well taken care of. I want to take this opportunity to thank our healthcare workers once again for their dedication. [Applause.]

We recognise the heavy workload and stress that our healthcare workers face every day. The surge in patient load due to COVID-19 means that some are taking on longer shifts, while others are required to take on additional roles. To ensure the well-being of our healthcare workers, institutions will make sure that their staff are well-rested and have put in place a series of measures to reduce staff burnout, such as counselling services and peer support programmes.

Most importantly, every case we can avoid will help to lighten their load. Hence, each of us can help by doing the right thing to reduce the risk of transmission.

I also want to also thank Singaporeans for your resilience, your understanding and support in adapting to these new measures and changes quickly and putting up with inconveniences and disruptions to your daily lives for the sake of other Singaporeans and our community. With the global situation still evolving and the number of cases rising rapidly worldwide, we must prepare to see more cases here too in time to come. Yesterday, we had 17 local cases in addition to 32 imported ones. We must work together and do what we can to keep the number of local cases down.

With a significant number of imported cases from returning residents and visitors, we have progressively put in place travel restrictions and placed returning residents on the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) and quarantine, but there is still a risk of them leading to more localised transmissions.

As more clusters emerge, our contact tracing, quarantine and healthcare resources will be stretched. If the clusters grow too large, such as those we see in the Life Church and Missions and Grace Assembly of God or SAFRA Jurong, if we have a few of them at the same time, it will be very difficult to contain them effectively, and the pressure on our healthcare system will increase. While we still have sufficient capacity in our healthcare system today, we cannot be complacent and we will need to preserve our buffer capacity.

Previously, all confirmed COVID-19 cases, regardless of severity, were admitted to our hospitals and remained there until they were tested negative for the virus twice, over a period of 24 hours, and this takes up our capacity. We took this conservative approach earlier on in this epidemic, as there was little knowledge about the severity of the disease and we wanted to find out more.

However, we now know that about 80% of COVID-19 cases were mild to moderate. That means many of the COVID-19 cases in our hospitals experience mild symptoms, no more than that of flu. They only require limited medical care and what we need really are isolation facilities to prevent them from infecting others, until they are free of the virus.

Therefore, MOH is tapping on private capacity and setting up community care facilities, such as the collaboration with Concord International Hospital which started accepting well and stable COVID-19 patients last Friday and Mount Elizabeth Hospital which saw its first patient on Monday. We are also converting some Government Quarantine Facilities, starting with D’Resort with a maximum capacity of about 500, for this purpose. As per public hospitals, Singaporean residents and long-term pass holders transferred to these facilities will continue to receive free-of-charge testing and treatment, except for those who have travelled overseas despite the travel advisory and contracted the infection while overseas.

Patients at these facilities will continue to be quarantined and closely monitored, so there is no risk to the general public in the community. Similar to cases admitted to hospitals, patients will be closely monitored and repeatedly tested for the virus.

Only when they have fully recovered and tested negative for the virus twice over a duration of 24 hours, will they be discharged back into the community. At this point, they will no longer have any risk of transmitting the virus to others as they have fully recovered. We will continue to explore the use of such isolation facilities for our well and stable COVID-19 patients. This way, we can focus our critical hospital resources on the seriously ill, to minimise the number of fatalities. But rest assured that any Singaporean who requires medical care, whether for COVID-19 or other illnesses, will receive the necessary treatment and care.

Let me take this opportunity to explain our strategy going forward and share what we can expect.

While we implement plans to ensure sufficient healthcare capacity, it is equally important to prevent new local clusters in the first place. This way, we can try to avoid an exponential growth in the number of infections, which could quickly overwhelm the healthcare system, as we saw in Hubei and Italy; and increasingly so, in many other countries.

Singapore's strategy is to slow down the infection rate and maintain it at as low a level for as long as possible. A lower infection rate will help us to better conduct epidemiological investigations, contact tracing and quarantining of close contacts, so as to prevent further spread of the disease in the community. It also preserves healthcare capacity to care for the more severe cases. With your permission, Mr Speaker, may I display a slide on the LCD screen to illustrate this point?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please. [A slide was shown to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you, Mr Speaker. If we do nothing, the number of cases will shoot up, like what happened in several cities and countries recently. Then, our only hope is that most of the population get infected and become immune quickly, and the rate of infection will start to slow down as more become immune, or a vaccine or a cure is found. That is when the curve starts to trend downwards.

This scenario is very attractive, we get over with it very quickly, but there are unfortunately, two major risks. First, an uncontrolled spike in the number of cases in a short period of time, like the purple curve, will overwhelm the healthcare system, easily resulting in high mortality rates, and there is no turning back once you are on this track. The second risk is that it is not certain yet that this immunity will be effective or sustained.

So, one alternative, is to introduce stringent safe distancing and other measures to slow down the infection curve, to slow down the infection rate. The number will still grow but if we do it right, we will end up with a lower peak. This is commonly known as flattening the curve, as Members can see, on the blue curve.

But by flattening the curve, we may actually stretch out the pandemic. So, Members see a long tail, meaning it will take much longer for the pandemic to be over. So, for Singapore, today, we are still at the start of the curve, so we have a chance, we have a chance to do neither. We hope, that if we do it right, we can significantly slow down the growth as much as we can, until the whole pandemic is over, without either a sharp peak or a long tail. This may sound impossible, because this are the two curves that have been established by academics. But, impossible as it may sound, we have to try our best to do so.

To achieve this, we have to continue to strengthen our efforts to detect cases early to initiate the contact tracing process as soon as possible to reduce the risk of the infection spreading. In preparation for the expected surge in cases in the coming weeks, we have expanded our contact tracing capacity, from three teams when we started out, to 20 teams today, thanks to manpower support from colleagues from Public Service agencies, including the SAF. We can now trace up to 4,000 contacts each day and will continue to scale up our contact tracing capacity as needed.

We are also leveraging technology to supplement our contact tracing efforts. For example, last week, MOH and GovTech launched the TraceTogether app, which will capture data on whom you have come into contact with for some time. This will be useful if you have come into close contact with a confirmed case which you do not know.

By downloading and activating this app, the contact tracers will be able to inform you early so that you can isolate yourself and protect your family, or receive early treatment if you are already unwell. For those who are concerned about privacy, I would like to assure you that the app does not track your location, so where you go, does not matter, the app does not know. It uses Bluetooth to detect if you have been in close proximity for more than 30 minutes with someone else with the app switched on. I urge Members and all Singaporeans to download the app to protect yourselves and your families.

I have spoken multiple times about the importance of social responsibility, here in Parliament as well as publicly. The Government will continue to put in place measures to protect Singaporeans as I have shared earlier, but the daily actions of each one of us will go a long way in winning this war. If you have been issued with a quarantine order or Stay-Home Notice, please stay at home and abide by the requirements of the order or notice. If you violate them, there will be penalties and the heaviest penalty is that you may infect others, including those you love. If you are unwell, please wear a mask and see a doctor immediately. If you have been given a medical certificate, please stay home for the whole duration covered by the medical certificate. Wash your hands with soap regularly and do not touch your face. It is literally in our hands to contain this outbreak.

In Singapore, we saw a few local clusters emerge where individuals who were feeling unwell or were issued a Medical Certificate but did not minimise social contact and continued to attend work or social activities. We have encouraged employers to support employees to spend the necessary time away from the office so that they can recover.

Studies on COVID-19 have shown that for each ill person who behaves responsibly, we can protect two to three others from being infected. It is not just about ourselves, but those around us too, including our loved ones. For the young and healthy among us, we may get away with a mild cold or cough, but for the more vulnerable loved ones around us, the disease may prove to be more serious. So, we must not take social responsibility lightly.

We have been progressively putting in place safe distancing measures, especially for the vulnerable groups. For example, after the SAFRA Jurong cluster arose, we suspended all senior-activities at Community Centres, Residents Committees, Senior Activity Centres and others. While some Members of Parliament, I think, Ms Denise Phua, asked me at the last Sitting whether we can resume some of these activities, I was very happy to say yes, then. Now, I am afraid it will be a while longer before we do that, to protect the seniors.

Seniors are of particular concern to us. MOH introduced an enhanced set of measures last week together with a set of guidelines to protect our seniors. We encourage seniors to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene like everyone else and engage in more home-based activities rather than joining group activities. For example, they can exercise at home with TV and online exercise programmes, as well as enjoy broadcast programmes covering singing, so they do not need to join karaoke groups, but they can join TV programmes and sing-along; cooking and other programmes by celebrities and People's Association trainers.

Do not go out except for essential activities such as work or to buy food and supplies. Family members and care-givers of seniors should also take precautions such as washing hands with soap and water before interacting with seniors and refraining from visiting seniors if one is unwell.

Each of us needs to play our part to take care of our seniors. With these added precautions in place, seniors can continue staying active and healthy.

The measures we have put in place are extra "brakes" to slow down the transmission of the virus, prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed, help bring the number of cases back down over time, and protect, particularly, our seniors.

Sir, let me conclude. While we should keep a wider physical distance between ourselves and others, we need to close the emotional distance between us. As Prime Minister pointed out, this is as much a psychological battle as it is a medical one. To win the battle, we must close ranks while keeping a safe physical distance. We should not stop caring about fellow Singaporeans or build walls between ourselves. On the contrary, we need to be more united than ever so that we can ride through this crisis together. We can show our appreciation to our frontline workers who are working very hard to keep Singapore clean and Singaporeans safe, and show our support to colleagues and friends who have acted responsibly and isolated themselves when they feel unwell.

The months ahead will be challenging. We need to be prepared for disruptions to our daily lives and changes to how we do things. But I am confident that if we stay united, with a whole-of-society effort, we can get through this together as a nation – SG United. [Applause.]

Mr Speaker: The Minister for National Development will be making a related Ministerial Statement. I will allow Members raise points of clarifications on both statements after this statement. Minister Wong.

2.26 pm

The Minister for National Development (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Health has given an update on the global and local situation and explained the public health measures that we have taken so far, as well as how we are managing our healthcare capacity. Let me now elaborate on the other aspects of the work of the Ministerial task force.

As Minister Gan mentioned just now, we experienced an initial wave of imported cases from China, which resulted in some local transmission and local clusters. Now, we are facing a second and much bigger wave of imported cases from the rest of the world, especially from America and Europe. It reflects how quickly virus is spreading around the world outside of China. The number of cases is doubling every four to six days. There are more cases outside China than in China now.

We are not alone in facing this new wave of imported cases. Many places in Asia – Hong Kong, Taiwan are in a similar situation. That is why we have been rapidly adjusting and updating our measures to respond to this new challenge.

We have progressively tightened our border controls and travel restrictions, based on the rapidly changing situation. We started with restrictions, as Members would recall, for travellers from China; we extended the restrictions to other epidemic centres – initially to Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran, then France, Germany, Spain; and later UK, Switzerland, Japan and the ASEAN countries. Eventually, we did not have to do country by country, we covered the whole world.

Earlier this week, we decided to disallow short-term visitors from entering or transiting in Singapore and to limit returning work pass holders to only those providing essential services like healthcare and transport. These are very significant moves for a small open economy like Singapore, where we have always been connected to the world. But these are extraordinary times, this is an unprecedented crisis and we had to move decisively to keep our borders safe.

Importantly, we want to focus our resources on the large number of returning Singaporeans coming back from overseas. We identify those coming back with symptoms as early as possible, right at the airport. We are testing as many as possible and we are expanding our testing capacity. But the numbers are large. Just from UK and US alone, we are getting about 1,200 Singaporeans coming back every day. Every day.

We also know that we cannot rely on tests alone, because someone who tests negative at the point of entry may simply be incubating the virus and could develop symptoms over the following days. That is why it is important to also isolate these returnees and have all of them have to serve a 14-day Stay-Home Notice. They have to stay at their place of residence and avoid contact with others even within the same household.

We now have 38,000 residents on Stay-Home Notices. That is a very large number. And the numbers will rise with the growing number of returnees.

Many are understandably concerned about the risk of the Stay-Home Notice returnees infecting their family members. So, we have just tightened the regime with additional precautions. We are focusing on returnees from the US and UK, given the higher risks, and we are now arranging for them to be transported from the airport directly to designated hotels to serve out the 14-day self-isolation period. These returnees have to stay in their rooms throughout. They cannot use any of the hotel facilities, swimming pool or gym; fourteen days in the room and we will put in place tight security arrangements to ensure this. For those who have already returned and are presently still serving the Stay-Home Notices at home, they, too, can apply to stay in these designated hotels if they so prefer.

This is a huge operational and logistical undertaking, given the volumes of people we are receiving everyday. We are able to make use of the empty bed spaces in hotels but we still need to ramp up manpower to enforce their self-isolation. And I want to acknowledge the hard work of all our public officials who did an excellent job in getting this ready within a very short period of time.

There is no telling how long this current wave of returnees and imported cases will last. There are more than 200,000 Singaporeans overseas. With more lockdowns imposed in countries elsewhere, more may want to return here to Singapore. And we should welcome them. So, we have to be prepared for more returnees and have arrangements to ensure that they are self-isolated for the full period before they can be brought back within our community.

At the same time, we do not want Singaporeans to travel overseas at this time and to compound the problem. That is why we have raised our travel advisory to the highest level to defer all travel. Previously, it was "non-essential". But I think people regard many things as essential. So, we say now "defer all travel". Those who choose to do so will have to pay full costs should they need treatment for COVID-19 when they return. Likewise, they will be subject to a full 14-day self-isolation at the hotel which they will also have to pay in full.

Despite our best efforts at controlling these flows at the borders, we have to be prepared for more cases to emerge, especially given the large number of returnees. That is why it is critical to quickly identify and isolate these cases and their close contacts through our on-going efforts at contact tracing and quarantine. Minister Gan spoke about this and how we are going to ramp up our capacity to do more contact tracing. This is essential because the minute you give up on contact tracing, then you are no longer able to manage the virus outbreak. This is the situation that many countries are facing now – they are no longer able to contact-trace the cases as well as their close contacts. So, we want to continue to maintain contact tracing and put all the close contacts under quarantine.

As of last night, there are around 2,500 persons under quarantine, be it in their homes or in Government Quarantine Facilities. The numbers give you a sense of proportion. We are talking about 38,000 Stay-Home Notices because of the large volume of returnees. But within Singapore, the close contacts, we have 2,500 under quarantine.

We will continue with the tough enforcement for both Stay-Home Notice and quarantine cases, including through all the various means we have put in place –remote monitoring, video calls and random house visits. We have put in place also very strict penalties for those who breach the requirements. They can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to six months, or both. But as Minister Gan said just now, the biggest penalty is not just a fine or even a jail sentence but the costs that you impose on others if you were to breach these rules.

We have an excellent detection system to pick up COVID-19 cases through our contact tracing procedures. One Harvard study called our contact tracing system the "gold standard". But even then, our detection rate is not 100%. It will never be. No system can be 100%. That means that the virus continues to circulate in our population and there are still cases out there in the community which will pop up.

That is our greater concern. We monitor very closely the number of locally-transmitted cases, especially the ones that are unlinked – "unlinked" meaning that they are new, they are popping up and we do not know where they originate from. We are seeing more of such cases in recent days. That is why we need to put in place a whole range of additional public health measures to slow down the spread of the virus within Singapore itself. We can think of these additional public health measures at different levels.

First, we have baseline measures which we are already doing. What is "baseline"? Things like daily temperature taking, seeing a doctor if you are unwell and staying at home and not shaking hands. Now, in true multiracial Singapore style, we have different ways of doing it. You can do the “Salam Mufti”, traditional Chinese style or Namaste. I think all of us are practising this in our daily lives now. We uphold good personal hygiene; wash our hands regularly and do not use our hands to touch our face and we uphold better public hygiene standards. We are stepping this up through SG Clean, a whole-of-nation effort that Minister Masagos is overseeing.

All of these measures should be continued for a sustained period. In fact, some ought to be new permanent norms, like upholding higher hygiene standards and using common serving utensils instead of double dipping. So, even after the COVID-19 outbreak is over – and it will be over after a while – we should continue to practise some of these new norms as a permanent part of our lives. I am not sure about the not-shaking-hands part. Frankly, at some point in time, we might want to get back to having some physical contact, but certainly not now. So, many things we will do on a sustained basis, some on a permanent basis even.

But beyond the baseline measures, we need to rely on additional measures and that is what we call social or safe distancing. We can think of these measures as extra "brakes" that we apply to slow down the spread of the virus. Last Friday, we introduced a first set of safe distancing measures. We suspended senior group activities; we pushed for telecommuting and staggered hours at workplaces; we limited large events to less than 250 persons, and we said seats have to be apart, like what we are doing now in Parliament; and we wanted a 1-metre spacing in public spaces and F&B outlets.

These measures are progressively being implemented. For example, public sector agencies are now pushing very hard on telecommuting. Where it is not possible, for example, for frontline and operational units, the agencies have implemented split teams by location or shifts, as well as staggered work hours, wherever it is practical. But the efforts on telecommuting must go beyond the public sector.

All workplaces must go on telecommuting as default wherever they can. More employers are doing this, but some are still resistant and want their staff to be physically present in their offices when they can actually work from home. So, we will get all employers to push more aggressively on telecommuting. This is the only way to allow Singaporeans to continue working while minimising their movements and contacts outside and it is also how we can reduce the load on our public transport system, especially during peak hours.

The measures introduced last week have brought about changes. There are fewer crowded venues. When you go out, you can see that perceptibly. We now see alternate seats marked in dining venues, including in hawker centres and coffee shops. So, people are seated further apart.

But we have to move faster, much faster. We still hear anecdotes of people going to discos and night clubs, and gathering in large groups. Our big worry is that these can become super-spreader events, spawning new clusters and potential runaway outbreaks. That is why we have proceeded with another set of brakes yesterday – even tighter safe distancing measures with the aim of limiting gatherings outside of work and school to less than 10 persons.

Let me explain briefly the rationale for making these moves. In schools and workplaces, we have been taking precautions. For schools, for example, Minister Ong Ye Kung and the MOE team have put in place a range of measures to keep students safe. They sit further apart in classrooms. CCA activities and inter-school activities are suspended. So, we do not allow intermingling of students outside of the classroom.

In workplaces, too, we are getting employers to take precautions, getting their staff to be seated separately and, as I have mentioned earlier, pushing harder on telecommuting.

But outside of schools and workplaces, we continue to see many gatherings of people and that is what we want to minimise. That is why we are suspending all entertainment venues like bars, clubs and cinemas. We are suspending religious congregations and services. We are suspending tuition centres. Even though the numbers may be small, but children coming to these centres come from different schools and they intermingle. So, we are suspending that. We are cancelling and deferring all events and mass gatherings and we are putting restrictions on retail malls, museums and attractions where they have to reduce the density of people moving in these areas and ensure no coming together of groups of more than 10 persons. These measures will take effect from Thursday, 2359 hours, and will be in place for at least a month until the end of April, that is, two incubation cycles.

With this significant slowing down of activities and movements, we hope we can break the potential transmission chains that may be happening. These are very major moves to slow down the spread of the virus. We recognise the inconvenience and disruption that these measures will bring to people’s lives and to businesses, but we have no easy options. That is the reality that countries everywhere are facing in tackling the virus. The more we try to stop or slow down the virus, the steeper will be the damage on our economies. So, we have to do what is necessary from the public health point of view first to save lives, slow down the virus and then, thereafter, do our best to manage the economic consequences. In the last few days, even as the Task force was deliberating over these measures, we have been sharing them, updating the MOF and economic teams working on the package of measures which Deputy Prime Minister Heng will be announcing tomorrow.

So, I urge all Singaporeans to cooperate and take the latest set of measures very seriously. Our main message to everyone is this: minimise your non-essential activities and your contact with others during this period. You can talk about all the suspensions, different settings, but simple message – everyone minimise your non-essential activities and your contact with others during this period. We must all do our part to stop the spread of the disease and ensure that we do not end up with a major outbreak of new local clusters.

Mr Speaker, Sir, we are now at a critical phase in our fight against the virus. The latest measures may help to slow down the spread of the virus. But it is also possible that despite these measures, the number of infected cases will continue to rise. If so, we will need more drastic measures and that would include suspending of schools and closure of some workplaces, aside from those providing essential services.

So, we will keep the measures under constant review. If the situation worsens, we will apply extra brakes. If the situation improves, we may be able to ease off a little bit but not go back to baseline; perhaps to a less stringent set of measures because the pandemic will probably still not be over for quite some time.

Given that we have been tightening our measures recently, I can understand why Singaporeans may also be concerned about the availability of essential supplies. In fact, we have been planning for potential disruption of supplies, be it food or medical supplies, over many years through stockpiling, local production and diversification of our overseas sources. Minister Chan Chun Sing and the MTI team are overseeing this work and they have been steadily ramping up their efforts across all fronts.

Here, too, we need Singaporeans to cooperate. If many people start to build up their own individual stockpiles at home unnecessarily, it will lead to an apparent shortage on the supermarket shelves and deprive others who may have more urgent need for food and other essential supplies. Such a perception could precipitate more panic buying, which can quickly spiral out of control.

There was, indeed, some concern initially when Malaysia imposed a Movement Control Order earlier this month. But the situation has now stabilised. The flow of goods and cargo, including food supplies, are largely continuing although we still have to be prepared there may well be disruptions along the way. As far as people movement is concerned, we have quickly found accommodations for the Malaysian workers who decided to stay in Singapore and this has allowed essential services like public transport to continue without interruption.

Going forward, the Singapore-Malaysia Special Working Committee, co-chaired by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Senior Minister Dato Sri' Ismail Sabri on the Malaysian side, is discussing a joint mitigation plan to ensure the safe and sustainable movement of people, goods and essential services between our two countries. In fact, if you have been following the news, Malaysia has now just extend its movement restrictions to 14 April, a few more weeks.

If and when the Movement Control Order in Malaysia is lifted, we cannot go back to business as usual and have large groups of people moving across our land checkpoints on a daily basis. That will be too dangerous from a public health point of view. So, we will need extra precautions on both sides, which are being worked out, so as to minimise the spread of the virus across our land borders.

Mr Speaker, I have summarised some of our key strategies in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore.

Underpinning all of these efforts is the need for all Singaporeans to take individual and social responsibility. The fight against the virus cannot be done by frontline workers or Government agencies alone. Each and every one of us has to actively do our part. And there are many things that we all can do, which Minister Gan mentioned earlier: upholding good personal hygiene; taking of temperature daily; seeing a doctor if you are unwell; staying at home if that is the case; and if you have just returned from overseas, ensure you self-isolate for 14 days, even from your family members; and minimising of non-essential activities and contact with others during this period. All of these measures we will try to enforce but ultimately it is about individual responsibility, individual actions to comply with these guidelines.

We are all enlisted in this national effort to slow down the spread of the virus and if we are disciplined about this, we will have a chance to control the situation and to protect ourselves, our family members, and the people around us.

In these difficult times, we see the best of Singapore and Singaporeans at work. We had young people from the Youth Corps conducting door-to-door visits to share personal hygiene and safety tips with the elderly. We have had many volunteer groups like the Singapore Red Cross stepping up their befriending calls to many isolated seniors. We had many individuals and volunteers also packing and donating care packs and items like masks, hand sanitisers and thermometers to the elderly and vulnerable groups.

In these difficult times, we see Singaporeans from all walks of life working flat out to fight the virus.

We have healthcare workers on the frontline making many sacrifices and working tirelessly to care for patients.

We have our public officials working very hard, too, across all the agencies – not everything they do is visible to the public eye. But I can tell you that they are working round the clock and it is incredible what they have been able to achieve, especially given the quick turnaround times. We are literally making new measures every other day, putting in place adjustments to measures almost on a daily basis and so this impacts on communications. We have a huge team working night and day to put out public communications materials to inform the public of all of these updates. We have a huge team on the operational side, be it at immigration or security, going all out to adjust to these changes and ensuring smooth implementation.

From time to time, there will be public feedback, there will be public complaints – they take all of this in their stride. If there are lapses, they try to rectify them as quickly as possible. And I hope the public will cooperate, too. We welcome feedback but you can do your part by ensuring the accuracy of your feedback so that the agencies do not have to waste time and resources to check on each and every information.

There are many more unsung heroes all over the island – in areas like cleaning, security, airport management, media, hotels, F&B, transport and many more providing services to Singaporeans – all still going strong, keeping their spirits high.

And there are many Singaporeans who have stepped up in their own ways looking after one another and caring for our fellow Singaporeans. Words are not sufficient to express our appreciation. Mr Speaker, words are not sufficient to express our appreciation for all of those who are —

Please give me a minute.

Let me just repeat what I said just now. Words are not sufficient to express our appreciation for so many Singaporeans going all out to fight the virus. And I just want to say a big "thank you" to everyone who is doing their part. [Applause]

We recognise that there is a growing uncertainty, anxiety and fear amongst Singaporeans. People are asking many questions – how long will this last? How safe will we be? How will our businesses survive? I receive many suggestions and feedback all the time, every day. Some want more drastic measures. Some say we are doing too much and there are too many restrictions. I appreciate all of the feedback. I cannot reply to each one of them, individually, but the team is looking at all of them and we take all of them into consideration as we develop and update our measures.

In some cases, there are no clear answers and solutions because the situation is so uncertain – so fluid and changing rapidly by the day. But one thing is clear – we are all in this together and we will continue to work through the challenges together, every step of the way.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it has been more than two months since our work on COVID-19 started. It almost seems like a life time ago, but in fact, we are only at the beginning of a very long fight. This will continue for many more months till the end of the year and, perhaps, even beyond.

The coronavirus is, without a doubt, the biggest threat the world and Singapore has faced for decades. So, let us rally together and rise to this challenge because as SG United, we can beat the virus together and we will emerge stronger and toughened after this crisis. [Applause.]

Mr Speaker: Points of clarifications. Mr Christopher de Souza.

2.55 pm

Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah): Sir, I thank the Ministers for their heartfelt statements. It looks to be obvious – the COVID-19 outbreak will be long drawn. Singapore's next General Election must be held by April 2021. However, Dr Tan Cheng Bock has suggested that the President can exercise her soft power and form a caretaker government with some of the current Members of Parliament. Then, Dr Tan says, call fresh elections when COVID is no longer a crisis.

In my view, having a caretaker government is not an answer to the long drawn crisis.

So, my question is: from the standpoint of the Constitution, what is the Government's position on such a caretaker proposal?

I have a second question: should the GE be held while COVID-19 is still in Singapore, what measures can be put in place to ensure the safety of Singaporeans during the election?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, the terms of reference of the Ministerial task force does not include consideration of the General Election. Perhaps, I can invite Senior Minister Teo to speak on this topic.

Mr Speaker: Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.

The Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security (Mr Teo Chee Hean): Mr Speaker, Sir, we have just heard from Minister Gan and Minister Lawrence Wong on what the situation is. It is a global pandemic and an unprecedented global crisis. It is a difficult time for everyone. In Europe and the US, the virus is still spreading at an exponential rate.

We have twin crises: health and economic. A global recession is imminent. Financial markets are in their worst turmoil since 2008. Hence, on 14 March, Prime Minister Lee warned that we face a grave and extended challenge. The pandemic “is likely to last at least this year, and quite possibly longer”. Even after we deal with this pandemic, the economic repercussion will last longer, with significant and longstanding impact on both lives and livelihoods.

In Singapore, the Government took early and decisive action to protect our people. We have managed the COVID-19 situation for now, with tremendous effort and cooperation from everyone. But the situation remains very serious and continues to develop quickly. We are starting to see another wave of imported cases – mainly from returning Singaporeans. The Multi-Ministry Task Force has introduced measures to deal with this. But the situation may get worse, before it eventually gets better.

Our focus now, of this Government, is on being prepared for the long haul, through the end of this year and beyond, and focus on solving this problem with Singaporeans and for Singapore.

Mr Speaker, the term of the 13th Parliament will end on 14 January 2021. An election must be held within three months of that, which means on or before 14 April 2021.

Ideally, we would like to conduct elections in normal conditions. The present situation is not ideal for holding an election, but that does not mean it makes an election impossible.

As the Prime Minister said, no decision has been taken yet on the timing of a GE. In making such a decision, the overriding concern is what is best for Singapore and for Singaporeans.

Some have suggested only holding elections when we see the "tail-end of the virus spread". And this is, indeed, the dilemma that we face. The Prime Minister has laid out the choices clearly. We can hope and pray that things stabilise, but we do not know when the COVID-19 situation will stabilise – whether it will do so within the next year, by January, or by April 2021. But what we do know is that an election must be held, must take place by 14 April 2021.

The longer we wait, the more unpredictable, difficult and dangerous it could be. Compounding this will be the uncertainty that comes with when the election will be held as we go through the year, trying to face this crisis together.

Alternatively, the country can go for early elections, settle who will lead the country through this major crisis, and give the Government a clear and fresh mandate, a full term ahead and legitimacy to take major decisions, tough decisions in the interest of Singaporeans.

Today, more than ever, we need a government that the people has expressed confidence in, to take us through this unprecedented health crisis, stabilise the economy and safeguard our people's lives and livelihood.

Mr Speaker, Sir, when you are sailing into a storm, you want to be certain who your captain is and that he will not be changed halfway. You want to make sure that he is there together with you, working with you, guiding you through the storm.

It is not a good idea to place all our hopes in the situation improving before April 2021, and add the uncertainty of when an election will be held to the uncertainties that are already ahead of us. However, we should not close off any options.

We have been upfront and open with Singaporeans about the challenges we face, the dilemmas, considerations and different possibilities so that Singaporeans will understand why there might be a need to go ahead.

However, some suggestions about this issue have been misleading and unhelpful. For example, the suggestion to delay the elections beyond the required time-frame of April 2021 until the crisis is over and to have the President form a caretaker government consisting of some of the current Members of Parliament.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I have sought the advice of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on whether this can be done. The advice of the AGC is that to delay an election beyond the required date in such a manner is unconstitutional. The only circumstances when the election can be put off beyond the required date is when a state of emergency is declared.

Mr Speaker, Sir, although Singapore has weathered many crises since our Independence, we have never extended a Government's term beyond the constitutional limit. Singapore is one of the only newly independent Commonwealth countries to regularly hold elections and has never declared a state of emergency since 1965.

Declaring an emergency and putting off elections indefinitely is not a precedent we should set lightly. A President's power to declare an emergency can only be exercised on the advice of the Cabinet. Even if the President proclaims an emergency, given that the incumbent Cabinet remains in office during an emergency, there is no legal basis or practical need for the President to form a new government.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it is not helpful to mislead people into thinking that such an option exists to put off elections indefinitely and for the President to form a new government when this goes against the Constitution.

Even if there is a caretaker government under a state of emergency, it would by definition be a caretaker. It would be hobbled by the fact that it lacks the explicit mandate of voters and would therefore not be in a position to take major decisions on behalf of Singaporeans. This is the reason why constitutional convention requires that a caretaker government not make any far-reaching or long-term measure.

So, this is the fundamental problem. Just when we need a government with a clear mandate to pull out all the stops in a crisis to implement strong mitigation measures, to mobilise our resources and reserves to implement strong economic stabilisation measures to save jobs and livelihoods, and to steer the country through the COVID-19 crisis, a caretaker government would not have a mandate to do so.

How can this be in the best interests of the country and our people?

Sir, to suggest this shows a disregard for or lack of understanding of the Constitution. Putting forward constitutionally unworkable proposals at a time of serious national crisis can only confuse and mislead Singaporeans, to the detriment of Singapore and Singaporeans.

This discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on our elections is an important one. It goes to a matter of principle.

This Government is ever mindful that what is at stake are jobs, businesses and lives. Our decision must be based on what is in the best interests of Singapore and Singaporeans, and how we can move forward together.

On Mr Christopher de Souza's second question – he asked about holding elections safely amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

The safety of all Singaporeans is of utmost importance. To combat the virus spread, we have implemented comprehensive measures over the past few weeks at every level. We have heard Minister Gan and Minister Wong – travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing measures, strengthening our healthcare institutions, workplace measures, protecting our students in schools and supply of essential goods. Even if the election takes place, it will not disrupt any of this. All these necessary measures will still be maintained.

But COVID-19 has created a new normal. Whether elections are held early or later, we will still have to work on the basis that the next election will necessarily be different from past elections. This means that the necessary extra safeguards and precautions must and will be taken, whether the elections are held early or held later, at every step – nominations, campaigning and voting. We will have to make all the necessary arrangements to ensure that parties can campaign effectively and people can vote safely. For example, for campaigning, we can have live-streaming of speeches on the Internet and adequate television time for candidates. For voting, we already have special express lanes for seniors and those who need them. We can also have social distancing while queuing, proper hand hygiene for voting paraphernalia and hand sanitisers for voters. We will learn from the experiences of other countries that are holding elections even during this on-going COVID-19 outbreak.

All these measures and precautions are required to protect Singaporeans. Whatever measures taken will affect all political parties equally.

As the Prime Minister said, no decision has been taken yet on the timing of the General Elections, but we have to plan on taking such additional measures to safeguard the health of Singaporeans. And I stress that these precautions and measures will be needed whether the election is held early or later. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I have one clarification. I think most Singaporeans are following the Government's advice very closely. However, there may be a small group of Singaporeans who disregard the Stay-Home Notice. Instead of staying home, what we learn from some of the chat groups, is that those who returned went out clubbing. So, my question is, how do we deal with those who fail to comply with the Stay-Home Notice.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you. This is a very important question and it is an issue that we are addressing and that we are paying a lot of attention to. For the enforcement of the Stay-Home Notice, we have help from the Home Team, so may I ask the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr K Shanmugam to respond.

Mr Speaker: Mr K Shanmugam.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr K Shanmugam): Mr Speaker, Sir, the stay-at-home framework was first issued to persons who were returning from specified countries, countries that we thought were higher risk. But since then, of course, the COVID-19 situation across the world has grown considerably worse.

So, on 22 March, we announced that all short-term visitors will not be allowed to enter into Singapore or transit through Singapore. So, in other words, no more tourists. No short stays. Singapore residents and long-term pass holders, they will obviously come back and they will be placed under a Stay-Home Notice (SHN) from 23 March.

And it works this way: it means that Singaporeans will not be stranded overseas. They can come back. They can get access to our healthcare system. But those who are served with an SHN also have a responsibility. They should not put the wider community at risk.

A Stay-Home Notice means exactly that – they have to remain in their place of residence at all times during the 14-day period and that is a non-negotiable condition. Persons on SHN are required to monitor their health closely. They have to minimise contact with others, even at home. They have to avoid having visitors. They cannot leave the house and they have to seek immediate medical attention if feeling unwell.

This is because persons under SHN carry some risk of having the virus by virtue of their travel history or by virtue of their contact with others who may have had COVID-19.

To ensure compliance with SHN, we conduct enforcement checks. They include surveillance using SMS, web-based solutions, mobile applications; and people are expected to be at home and contactable, obviously. Those who do not respond to the messages will be called and there are also house visits, unannounced, by enforcement officers.

There are serious consequences for non-compliance. You have section 21(a) of the Infectious Diseases Act (IDA). If you breach the SHN, that could expose others to risk of infection, a first-time offender could face a jail term of up to six months, a fine of $10,000, of both. For repeat offenders, they face a jail term of up to 12 months, a fine of $20,000, or both.

MOH will be setting out new regulations under the IDA, specifically focusing on penalties for SHN breaches. The jail term could be up to six months, a $10,000 fine, or both. If you are not a Singapore Citizen, but you are a Permanent Resident, a long-term visit pass holder, a dependent pass holder, a student pass holder, where appropriate, we will not hesitate to revoke these passes, shorten their validity and also bar re-entry into Singapore. So, the passes could be cancelled if you are short-term visitors and you could be asked to leave Singapore immediately and barred from re-entry forever.

Foreign employees could have their work passes revoked and repatriated. For students, action can be taken by schools, including suspension or dismissal.

Where there has a breach of the SHN and we knew about it, action had been taken. Members may recall when the SHNs were first introduced. There was a 45-year-old Permanent Resident, he was served with such a notice. He arrived at Changi Airport. He had a travel history to mainland China at that point, failed to respond to our calls. When enforcement checks were done, he was not at home and then, he was seen at Changi Airport, wanting to leave Singapore. It is clearly a breach of his SHN. So, his application for renewal of his re-entry permit was rejected by ICA and his PR status therefore was effectively revoked, and he has been barred from coming into Singapore. So, these are quite serious penalties.

We have another case. NIE terminated a foreign student from his postgraduate course, again for breaching his SHN and for repeatedly providing false information to NIE regarding his travel movements. His student pass was also terminated.

I think Er Dr Lee's question may have been prompted by some of the messages that many of us have seen going around about recent returnees, particularly from the United Kingdom, that they are going out to eat local food, they hold birthday parties in their homes, they interact with friends, they go to clubs, bars and so on, while they were under SHNs. And many Singaporeans get upset when they hear about this.

I think, either today or yesterday, another case was reported on an online site, Mothership – a Singaporean returning from Myanmar was apparently issued a SHN but he went out to have "bak kut teh" and posted about it on his Facebook page. I have asked for that case to be investigated.

We are trying to verify some of these messages on SHNs being flouted. If anyone, a member of public, if you have information about such behaviour, please give it to the Police. We will follow up and we cannot allow such behaviour. So, I have given very clear instructions where these cases are verified to be true, we will charge them in Court.

The second point is, when people are required to declare their travel history, there has to be honesty. Where false information is given, in order to avoid SHNs, there can be prosecution. Section 182 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up two years or fine. Section 57(1)(g) of the Immigration Act also carries a jail term of up to 12 months, up to $4,000 fine, or both.

But there is a wider duty that each of us owes to control the spread of COVID-19 and, really, not to endanger others and expose them to infection.

One story going around – again, we are trying to verify – is that an individual is said to have gone for a holiday in Italy, developed symptoms of COVID-19 with a cough, fever and breathlessness. And this person apparently hid his symptoms and travel history in order to get on to a plane to come back to Singapore. And later, in Singapore, the person was admitted to the hospital, fell very ill, found to be carrying the virus.

If this is true, the conduct is highly irresponsible. If he knew that there was a significant risk that he was infected but kept silent and went on the flight, then, he did so knowing that others could be infected.

I can understand, as a Singaporean, he is anxious to come home, to his family. He is confident about our healthcare system, he wants to be here, but not at the risk of endangering other people's well-being. He should have declared his symptoms at check-in. Then, the airline would make a considered decision whether to allow the person to fly, and if so, with what sort of precautions. There cannot be this sort of unacceptable risk of infecting others.

We have also received feedback from healthcare workers that some people are not truthful with their travel history when they see their GPs. Again, highly responsible. Our healthcare professionals, as Mr Gan has said, are our key asset in this fight. They are in the frontline; we all have to support them and not expose them in this way.

So, on 23 March, ICA has announced that travellers into Singapore will have to fill in electronic health declaration from 27 March onwards. ICA will share this information – the electronic health declaration – with MOH so that they will know if a person has travelled to a high risk country. That information would allow us to identify persons who may be at risk, take precautions and provide them with the appropriate medical care.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government has put in place strict regulations and a strong enforcement framework. But regulations and strong enforcement are not going to be enough on their own, if people continue to insist on being irresponsible. All Singaporeans have to do our part, exercise social responsibility, protect ourselves, friends and family and fellow citizens.

We are doing our best. The public officials – you have heard Minister Lawrence – have been working around the clock. And it has really been quite an exhausting few months for them. And this is a common fight. Most Singaporeans – you see it from the reaction – a vast majority of Singaporeans are responsible, understand this and have come together and acted admirably. But there will always a few who are irresponsible in every society and they risk undoing our efforts and put other people's lives at risk.

So, if members of the public know of SHNs being flouted or breached, please tell the Police. We will take action against them. We have to take action against them. When we come together as a people, looking out for one another, we will prevail and we will overcome this COVID-19 situation.

Mr Speaker: Mr Alex Yam.

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Thank you. Mr Speaker. The two Ministers, the co-chairs the Multi-Ministry Task Force, thanked many people. But I think we should also thank the members of the Multi-Ministry Task Force for their leadership in the last two months in guiding us through this crisis. Thank you to the Multi-Ministry Task Force team.

I have three supplementary questions. The first is, under what circumstances will we consider a complete lockdown of the country. Many people have mentioned this and referred to other jurisdictions. But what are the implications to our country if we should adopt this measure.

Secondly, there are many Singaporeans who are still overseas. I know of many who are attempting to come back to Singapore, but with increasing lockdowns and travel restrictions, what assistance are we providing to Singaporeans overseas who are attempting to come back to Singapore?

The last question is in relation to the fact that Singapore is a pluralistic society, we are multi-religious and there are four major religious festivals coming up. We have Qingming Festival, Clear Bright Festival, Good Friday Easter, Ramadan as well as Vesak Day coming up on our calendars in the next two months. What are the advice and guidelines that religious institutions as well as believers should follow as we come close to these festivals in terms of gathering together and celebrating?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, where it comes to whether or not more drastic measures are needed, people use the word "lockdown". But let us look specifically at what additional measures we are contemplating, and I mentioned that just now.

We have already put in place quite strict measures recently. The next step, if it is necessary, would be, as I mentioned, suspension of schools, which has to also go together with closure of some workplaces, aside from those providing essential services. They go together because if you were to suspend schools, many parents will need help looking after their children. And if they have to go to work, it will not be practical. It will be very difficult for them to do.

So, the next step if we have to consider, what would be the considerations for that? It is not just the overall number of cases. We have to drill deeper to understand the reasons for these cases. If we continue to see more cases coming in and a lot of them are imported cases, and we are able to contain and ringfence and isolate them, we may not need to trigger the additional measures. But if we see more local transmitted cases, particularly unlinked ones, and that continues to rise, despite all that we are doing with strict safe distancing measures, then we may well need to activate the next set of brakes in order to slow down the spread of the virus.

On the many Singaporeans who need assistance, we remain open to welcoming them. So, I think that if there is a need to, MFA and the overseas missions are reaching out to them. Flights have come down but commercial flights are still available for many of these countries.

So, I would imagine people are making their own arrangements. Some have decided to stay and then some will decide to come back. And when they come back, we welcome them but we take the necessary precautions to make sure that they self isolate for the full period and do not cause any infection within our own community.

For religious gatherings, we have made very clear there is a suspension of all religious congregations and services for the next month. The religious places of worships may remain open for people to go; individuals who need to get help from their religious leaders, that remains. So, the venues themselves remain open. Religious organisations, different faiths may want to do smaller groups. But if they do so, then we ask them to abide strictly by the guidelines. Each group less than 10 persons; and even within that grouping, make sure precautions are taken. So, minimise physical contact as much as possible and then, make sure that no one there is unwell. If anyone has been overseas recently, make sure that they are isolated. They should not be there to begin with. So, these are all precautions that religious organisations, in fact, every organisation should take. No more large gatherings. If there is a small group, keep it less than 10 and even then, take all the necessary precautions.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yee Chia Hsing.

Mr Yee Chia Hsing (Chua Chu Kang): Thank you, Speaker. First, I would like to declare my interest as a director of two SGX-listed companies. My work also requires me to advise SGX-listed companies. With the latest measures, SGX-listed companies will have to hold virtual meetings; and the attendance at virtual meetings will be much smaller than the usual shareholders' meetings, first, because there is no more buffet and the second is that among the less tech-savvy, they may not be so comfortable participating in the virtual meetings.

Sir, some corporate actions, such as schemes of arrangements require minimum number as well as percentage of stakeholders to vote in favour. So, with the latest measures, will there be legislative amendments to allow such corporate actions to be passed during this period?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, MAS and SGX have already put out some guidelines on how companies listed entities can go about conducting their AGM and other activities during this period, precautions that they can take and we will continue to study if additional measures, including legislative measures, may be needed, if necessary.

Mr Speaker: Ms Sylvia Lim.

Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Thank you, Speaker. I have two clarifications for the Minister for Health. First, it is concerning the lethality of the virus. Earlier, he mentioned that if persons are young and healthy, even if they catch the virus, they are likely to get away with mild symptoms, such as a cough. And to get a sense of perspective, there have been some leaders overseas who have given a rough figure to say that 95% of the population need not worry about serious complications from COVID-19. It is just a 5%.

So, I would like to ask the Minister whether he agrees that based on the experience we have had in Singapore, that this 95% to 5% proportion is also what we have seen in Singapore, meaning that only 5% who encounter the virus are likely to have serious complications.

The second clarification is, could he give some information on the profile of the ICU patients with COVID-19? We know so far that the two deaths have concerned those who are elderly and with pre-existing conditions, but are there also significant numbers of patients in the ICU who are younger and do not have pre-existing conditions?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you. Let me first stress that all of us must take COVID-19 seriously. It does not mean that the young do not have to take the disease seriously. Because there is always a risk that if you have more people, even young people, getting COVID-19, you may pass it on to the old people around you, including those with chronic diseases. And families as well.

It is true from our data that those older patients and those with underlying chronic diseases, like cardiovascular diseases, tend to have more serious disease outcomes. So, it is important for us to enhance our protection for the elderly but we must not take the disease lightly.

From our own experience in the ICU in our hospitals, we do see some young people who develop serious diseases. Part of the reason – I think I have explained during the last Sitting – is because of their auto immune system overreacting to the disease and therefore, it causes damage to their organs. We do have one or two patients in our ICU who are young and who happen to have very serious disease outcomes.

But it is, I think, generally correct to say that this disease is likely to affect the seniors more severely and especially those with underlying chronic conditions. So, we have to pay particular attention to the seniors among us, but as the Prime Minister commented just now, even if young people get it, there is a risk that you pass it on to your family members, including the seniors in your family. So, we must always be careful.

MOH has issued a set of guidelines for seniors as well as for young people when you interact with seniors. Do not just leave it to the seniors to protect themselves and we happily go to their homes to say "Hello" to them and share a dinner with them. We may be the vector, we may be the cause of their infection. So, do take precautions if you want to visit your seniors. I think it is not possible to ask ourselves to stop visiting seniors. We have to continue to visit them, but when you do so, exercise caution and practise a high level of personal hygiene, particularly when you are dealing with seniors.

Dr Chia Shi-Lu (Tanjong Pagar): I would like to thank both Ministers for their update and also for their leadership on the task force so far. Two clarifications for the Minister for Health. First, I was very happy to hear of this new move to decant some of the less serious cases to community facilities. I would just like to ask whether considerations have been made to do what some other countries have done and allow the milder cases to self-isolate. Because if we do see larger numbers, that may even exceed the capacity of these community facilities. That is the first clarification.

The second is that I was also very happy to hear the very high level of testing in Singapore. Because there have been some comments over the past weeks that perhaps Singapore has not been testing as much as other countries. So, I was very happy to hear of the very high level of testing that we have had. The clarification concerns whether we should consider testing those who have completed their QOs or the SHNs. Because there have been some concerns raised by certain experts that these people have been quarantined, could actually have developed very mild forms during that period – the 14 days. And maybe they did not notice it. It was not picked up. So, it could be that they could still be carrying the virus at the end of the 14 days or they may even become symptomatic after the 14 days.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: We do have plans if the situation warrants to allow the milder cases to self isolate at home. We will serve them home quarantine or stay home notices to allow them to recover at home. But at the moment we do not need to do that because we still have community facilities that we can tap on, but it is part of our options.

Secondly, on the level of testing. So far, we have a relatively high level of testing. But also we do very targeted testing. Because testing is not only laborious, it also requires resources to be put in place; not just for the testing but for the laboratory resources as well. So, it is very important for us to ensure that we are very targeted and focus on those who are at higher risk of infection. Therefore, for those who are under the Quarantine Orders or SHN, we also do risk assessment. For those who have a higher risk of exposure, we may do targeted testing for them. But we do not do blanket testing because that will first create a lot of false negatives, which give a false sense of assurance that "You are okay", and then, they go around spreading the virus. So, you should be always careful and mindful. Even for those who have been discharged, you must continue to be careful because if you are not infected, after you have left the quarantine facility, you may get infected. It does not ensure that you have lifelong immunity because you have never been infected before.

So, therefore we must be very careful. We must assume that everyone has a potential of being infected, so we take the necessary precautions.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have one question for Minister Wong. This pertains to the new and heightened restrictions announced yesterday evening by Minister, which were also the subject of his speech today. Since the release of the Electoral Boundary Review Committee report, I think it is quite apparent to a lot of Singaporeans that political parties have stepped up their political outreach. The concern in view of yesterday's announcements is that some of this these outreach activities can easily lead to the formation of large social gatherings in excess of 10 individuals, in close proximity to each other.

Does the Minister not agree that such continued outreach could potentially interfere and contradict the directives of the task force, particularly yesterday's new directives? Because to quote the Minister, there was a concern that the safe distancing measures were not being taken seriously and that the public was generally too slow to respond to the new COVID-19 situation.

So, to that end, can I confirm if the task force will be announcing some measures that all political parties can take into cognisance so that everybody is on the same page with regard to the task force's announcements vis-à-vis social distancing in other other measures?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, the task force is quite clear in putting out these measures that we want to restrict any form of activity that brings about congregations of more than 10 persons. That is a rule or that is an advisory and a guideline that we put out to all organisations. And all political parties in this House, outside of this House will therefore have to abide by these guidelines and make adjustments to their activities.

Assoc Prof Walter Theseira (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, I have four clarifications. Two for the Minister for Health, two for Minister for National Development. For Minister for Health, are there any plans by the Government to provide housing support to frontline healthcare workers who request it. That is because we have heard that there are some cases of healthcare workers, who out of caution, they want to isolate themselves from their families and they may or may not have the means to do so. So, that is the first.

The second question is there are some reports elsewhere that indicate quite a high proportion of cases actually have no symptoms. For example, I think about half of the cases from The Diamond Princess cruise ship were non-symptomatic upon being diagnosed. So, are there any plans to investigate this in Singapore, for example, through voluntary random testing or something, to see whether we do in fact have quite a few people who were exposed and infected but there is nothing, no consequences there? Because this could help to inform our strategy going forward.

For Minister for National Development, in the event of more strict control measures, what resources will be deployed to ensure that daily necessities can be distributed to the public, especially for those who are more vulnerable and in need because they may not be able to leave their home or may be very cautious about doing so. We do not want a situation where people cannot access daily necessities in the event of more strict measures. The other question on more strict measures is, currently, what are we doing to define essential services and to work with workplaces, employers and so on, so that everybody understands what is essential and what is not. Because I think we are seeing in many other countries, there is a lot of confusion about how this is being worked out on the ground. And I think if we have more strict measures and we rush to inform everybody, you are essential and you are not, we will have a lot of confusion and that could be too late. It might be good to start early.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Just to answer the first two questions. First, on the housing support for our frontline workers. We do have a scheme to help frontline workers. If they have this requirement, please let us know and we will try our best to help some of our frontline workers are staying in rented houses or rented apartments – we do want to appeal to the landlords to allow them to continue to stay in these apartments. In the hospital, they are given protective gear so they are safe, so allow them to continue. Let us not segregate them. Let us not ostracise them. We ought to be inclusive. That is the key message. But for healthcare workers who do need housing support, we have been working with the Clusters' management to extend our support to them.

The second question on the asymptomatic cases. We do have asymptomatic cases. That means people who are infected that do not have symptoms or they have mild symptoms or their symptoms are so mild that patient themselves do not know that they have such an infection. But it is also professionally assessed that for those with very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, they are unlikely to spread because the spreading requires the projection of your droplets and so on. So, those require quite significant symptoms.

Studies have shown that for the mild symptom cases, the risk of transmission is significantly lower. It is not that there is no risk at all, but the risk is significantly lower. So, that is the status.

We are carrying out studies on surveillance and as well as serological tests to determine whether there were underlying cases that were not detected. So, some of these experiments and surveys are on-going.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, we are very mindful that in the event of stricter measures we want to ensure that the vulnerable groups have access to essential supplies and services. Even under today's environment where we put in place the range of measures that we have already announced, we were mindful of that and that is why we are still allowing F&B outlets to operate, people still need to go out to eat. But if they do so, then the setting is such that it is safe, it is separated and the F&B outlets remain open, the kitchens remain open, because food manufacturers, kitchens still need to generate the food and some of that can be ordered for take-out.

So, these are things we are very mindful of and if indeed stricter measures are imposed, we will ensure some of these outlets remain open, in order for people to access food and essential supplies, and we can also mobilise volunteers who can help with the delivery of such items to vulnerable groups.

Second, on the question on the framework for essential services, we do have such a framework in place and we will engage the key stakeholders. Of course, when the announcements – if and when announcements are made for stricter measures including closure of workplaces, aside from those doing essential services, then that would be announced. I think the Member's point is by the time you announce and put out the framework, people may well be scrambling and the reaction time may not be fast enough and there may be a little bit of anxiety at that point in time. We recognise that. We will do what we can and we are doing what we can to engage these firms. I think the firms who are tagged as essential services know who they are. The ones that do not, probably do not quite know and may think that they are essential even though they are not part of the framework. But we will be reaching out to more firms so that they are mindful and if additional measures are needed, we can ensure a smoother transition.

Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson): I deeply appreciate all the efforts that have been put in so far. It is so good to be a Singaporean. I have a supplementary question. Given the call for heightened vigilance and enhanced measures for various reasons amongst which is also to reduce the risk of infection to innocent others around us, I would like to ask what would be done to enforce or curb behaviours that may pose risks to the public health of others and whether our laws and our current tools are sufficient to do so?

Let me give one example. In my constituency, there is one man who has been very recalcitrant. What he did was that he lined his fingers with his saliva and just touched all the lift buttons. There would be saliva left behind on the panel. The CCTV footage caught that but NEA cannot prosecute him because it is not spitting. And so, currently, it is being looked into. However, there is concern to the public health of other residents who have to share the lift. So, I would like to ask whether we are adequately equipped to take action on such a very inconsiderate individual.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Member can give us the details and we will follow up on this particular case. I think the Minister for Home Affairs has already talked about those who fail to comply with our Stay-Home Notices and Quarantine Orders. Those, we will take care of. Even those behaviours that endanger the health and safety of the public, we have sufficient legal powers to go after them. So, I will encourage members of the public – if you come across any of these actions that put public safety or health in danger, do let us know and we will go after them. We need everyone to play their part to keep Singapore safe and healthy.

Mr Speaker: Ms Anthea Ong.

Ms Anthea Ong (Nominated Member): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank both Ministers for the Ministerial Statements. I especially appreciate Minister Wong's sharing. I have got three clarifications.

The first one is: what are we doing with the safe distancing measures in public transport? I am a public commuter so I have not seen any changes in that regard.

The second is: if Minister Gan can also share what is the number of infected cases or, in terms of its tipping point where our healthcare capacity will start to be under burdened, what is the number of infected cases that would actually get us to that tipping point?

The third point is relating to the communications on the advisories that are going out. It is very rapid, it is also changing as what Minister Wong says, every other day. Some of the elderly folks have shared with me they are not able to keep up with what is going on. I am just wondering if there could be — well, first, I would like to understand how we are actually getting the information out to the different segments of the society; and secondly, if there is a central agency that is managing this in the form of FAQs or handling queries from citizens when they are not sure about is nine persons in terms of gatherings okay; and if a gathering is for community work instead of social gathering, is that okay? There are a lot of questions that are coming out and I wonder if there is a need for a central agency to handle that.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Let me address the question on healthcare capacity and the burden on healthcare facilities. I will leave it to Minister Wong to talk about public transport as well as the advisory. I should also take this opportunity to thank Minister for Communications and Information, Mr Iswaran, who is always in the background. But his Ministry and him have been very crucial; they play a very vital role in managing our public communications, the WhatsApp that you receive from Gov.sg came from the Ministry, so we want to thank MCI for their hard work.

On the healthcare facilities. We always try to have a benchmark beyond which we turn on the switch or turn off the switch. But in the healthcare system, we do not operate like that. We look at the whole scenario and disease pattern, and we adjust as we go along. So, even today, if you ask me, we are under pressure too. Our resources are stretched but we make adjustments to accommodate the trend of the growing number of cases. If the cases continue to grow we will continue to adjust. As I mentioned today, we have started to send patients to private hospitals and we are sending patients with mild and stable conditions to our community isolation facilities. These are our strategies to keep our healthcare system moving and still maintaining certain buffer capacity, in case there is a surge.

Unfortunately, I would not be able to give you a single number because it is really a whole set of conditions and we adjust as we go along. I think we have sufficient flexibility in the healthcare system.

Mr Speaker: Mr Lawrence Wong.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, the issue of public transport again cannot be looked at in isolation because it has to be considered together with measures we take, for example, at workplaces. In order to reduce crowdedness and in order to reduce volumes on public transport, particularly during the peak periods, it is vital that companies take action and employers take action to do two things: one, get as many of their employees and staff to work from home; and second, for those who really have to come to the office, put in place staggered hours. We have issued the advisories; the Public Sector is going all out to do it. But, as I mentioned earlier, we know that more still can be done and has to be done.

So, MOM, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, MTI, we are all reaching out engaging employers and getting them to step up and do more. We have to go more aggressively on telecommuting in order to bring down the loading on the public transport system during peak hours.

On communications, as Minister Gan said, we have a whole-of-Government approach. MOH is the front because you see the statements, advisories, they are all put out under the banner of MOH. All of the information is on the MOH website, but really behind the scenes is a whole-of-Government communications team coordinated by Minister Iswaran and the MCI communications team. A lot of people are working day and night because of the rapid – the nature of the work is such that we are putting out new information so rapidly, so they are constantly generating infographics, materials in different languages and pushing them pushing them out through multiple platforms.

We can continue to improve. I think the team will always look at ways in which it can do better, particularly reaching out to segments that may not be accessing the information so readily and we will always look at different ways where we can put up more information. So, that work is continuing. We know it is a vital work that has to be done and we are sparing no effort to ensure that the information is put out in a timely and accurate manner.

We will also, during this period, be able to leverage on resources outside of the Public Sector. In fact, there is spare capacity out in the private sector. There are call centres, there are people who can be enlisted to help us in this outreach and so we are also looking at leveraging on these resources, so it need not and should not be a Government effort alone. We really need a whole of Singapore effort in order to fight the virus.

Mr Speaker: Mr Darryl David.

Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to thank the Ministers for their statements, especially Minister Lawrence Wong earlier for the reassurance that Singaporeans who are returning to Singapore after spending some time overseas, will be able to come back to the haven that we all call home.

My question is on outbound travel, Mr Speaker, and that is, I understand that we have been more and more stringent with outbound travel moving from advisory that says only for essential travel, and now moving to all travel. But my question is, in light of the fact that the situation is more heightened, will we be even stricter with the travel of our Singaporeans and Singapore residents overseas, knowing full well that if they travel out, a significant proportion of these outbound travellers will then have to come back? So, will the Government ever consider limiting travel, perhaps, requiring outbound travellers to seek unique and special permission, and then when they come back, how would we propose to manage these cases differently from those returning cases of people who have already been out for some time?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, we have already highlighted some of the deterrence that we are putting in place for outbound, new outbound travellers, including the fact that they have to pay full cost when they come back and should they need treatment. And the fact that when they are returning, upon returning they have to serve the full self-isolation period of 14 days and pay full cost for that as well.

We will continue to see if other measures are needed. I am just very mindful that for every new measure we put in place, there is a requirement to have new operational requirements, new processes, new staff work to be done and all of this takes up resources. So, at the end of the day, this is about looking at how we allocate resources to areas of urgent needs and priorities. So, we will first monitor the volume of outflows. It is already coming down and if the measures we have are effective in bringing the volumes down further, I think we should be all right.

In any case, I think there will still be some people who might very well need to travel, for whatever reasons – maybe there is a bereavement, that somebody had passed away in the family, outside of Singapore and they really need to go and I can understand why.

So, I do not think the numbers will fall to zero but if it comes down to a number that we are able to manage, we should be okay. But if the numbers continue to persist and do not come down further, then, indeed more measures will be necessary and we will consider what additional measures at that stage will be introduced.

Mr Speaker: Mr Mohamed Irshad.

Mr Mohamed Irshad (Nominated Member): I thank both Ministers for sharing what efforts are being taken by the Government and on daily basis, through the press conference.

Several clarifications. The contact tracing is also done by our Police officers from Singapore Police Force. Just wanted to seek clarification on whether their policing work is impacted by the amount of the time they are spending with the contact tracing? Four thousand contact tracings done per day. So, how much of this is impacting the Police work?

And secondly, is on misinformation. I thank MCI for the dedicated timely pushing out of information daily. The question is on misinformation with regards to things like live telecast of Prime Minister's speech that was circulated on WhatsApp, call for volunteers at MOH call centres, impending lockdown and so on. A lot of the misinformation is sent on private messaging platforms and timely clarifications are posted on MOH website and various other websites. Is it worthwhile considering setting up just a microsite just for all these clarifications to be posted so that people can have a one-stop place where we can see what is being circulated and timely responses are posted and we can always refer to it as a first touch point.

And third on social distancing on public transport, I hear Minister Lawrence Wong's comments. I think it is very important to encourage telecommuting amongst our workforce to reduce the travellers commuting at peak times and so on. But the point is, if you go to public transport sites – bus stations, MRT stations and so on – even at the escalators, people are just lining up back to back of each other. That is not just during peak hours but also non-peak hours. So, how can we implement safe distancing within bus stations, within MRT stations and also on the bus itself we can have one seat beside each other to be vacant, we can actually Implement some sort of measures even on the MRT trains to have one seat in between each other. So, I think more thought can be given on that because if you are encouraging safe distancing everywhere and we have public transportation where a lot of people are moving in masses —

Mr Speaker: Keep it short, please. Thank you.

Mr Mohamed Irshad: It is an area we can look at. I have two other clarifications.

Mr Speaker: Can we keep it tight?

Mr Mohamed Irshad: Okay. We have a policy of people coming back from overseas to be issued Stay-Home Notice but however, Singaporeans who want to visit their relatives who just came back and visit the houses, how can we discourage them from doing so? Because there have been cases where they go and visit the people who are staying at home, even though they limit the exposure time but it is still exposure. These are some clarifications to be sought.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: I will answer on behalf of Minister for Home Affairs on Police work. First, I want to thank the Police for helping us to do contact tracing. Of course, there are also others, including the SAF who are helping us as well. But I want to assure you that despite the involvement in the contact tracing, their duties as a Police Force has never been diminished. And for criminals who think that they may have an easy time during this period, perish the thought.

On the misinformation, I will ask Minister Iswaran to respond in a while. I will ask Minister Wong to answer the rest of the questions.

Mr Lawrence Wong: I will address the question on public transport. Mr Irshad is right that we should have safe distancing measures even within the public transport system. But the first priority has to be just to reduce the numbers. If the numbers are still high, having safe distancing within a train or bus will mean the queue goes up somewhere else. It would be in the bus stop, it will be outside the train station, there will still be a congregation. So, I think before we talked about measures within a train, in the escalators, stations and all that, all necessary, we have to bring down the sheer volume. The only way to do that, as I said earlier – telecommuting, staggered hours, all employers must push harder on this.

Mr Speaker: Minister Iswaran.

Mr S Iswaran: Mr Speaker, I think the Member has made an important point about the need to address misinformation swiftly and decisively. Let me just say that first, our emphasis has been on ensuring that information is put out accurately by authoritative sources. So, for a start, the Multi-Ministry Task Force co-chairs together with, usually the Director for Medical Services as well as other Ministers as appropriate and other officials as appropriate, have been conducting regular press conferences. And this has been an important part of our effort to ensure that there is regular communication and also regular representation – faces associated with the communications – so that Singaporeans have a point of focus and a point of assurance in this entire effort.

Secondly, there have been regular background briefings that are being conducted by the Director for Medical Services and various other officials from time to time. This occurs as I have said, in the background, but it is a very important part of ensuring that the media understand the context of the decisions that are being made and the rationale, so that, when they report and convey those decisions, they can contextualise these correctly.

Thirdly, the Member has raised specifically the point on misinformation, we have had to deal with it through a variety of measures. Of course, in the most extreme circumstances, we have had to use some of the powers available to us under the newly enacted POFMA legislation. I think Members will be aware of that. We have also tried to use other channels to push out information proactively but also sometimes reactively. So, in some of the instances that the Member has cited, for example, when there was a information passing around about Prime Minister's impending address to the nation and all kinds of rumours associated with it, we did push out something through the gov.sg WhatsApp. For Members' information, today, we push out on a daily basis, something of the order of magnitude of over 900,000 messages each time and that is in the four languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.

The last point I want to make in response to the Member's comment that, whilst we can consider things like microsites and so on, as a kind of inventory of some of these clarifications that we put out, the crux of the matter really is in being able to counter such misinformation quickly. And I think we can do that in two ways.

The first is, of course, on the part of the Government in terms of how we are able to put out the information, the correct information through all the channels available to us and we will continue to work at it and improve on it.

The second is – I think this is largely the most important point – what Singaporeans can do ourselves and I think it has been salutary to see how Singaporeans now – often I get a lot of these messages and I am sure Members do too – the first instinct is ask: is this correct or is this fake? And I think that instinct is the right one, not to immediately press forward and pass it on to all our chat groups. But, to first verify, understand, before we share. I think if we do that, that will be the strongest defence against misinformation.

Mr Speaker: Dr Lily Neo.

Dr Lily Neo (Jalan Besar): Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I ask Minister for Health on MOH's capacity in coping with serious cases of COVID-19 in terms of adequacy in respirators and in our ICU beds. Am I correct to say that already half of NCID's ICUs are taken up? What will happen when it reaches its full capacity? And may I also ask the Minister, so far, what is the average length of stay of patients in our ICU beds by COVID-19 cases?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: I thank Dr Lily Neo for her very important questions, always. The capacity of ICU in NCID, we still have capacity and we have room to expand the capacity. But, I must say that the main constraint is not so much in the physical capacity, but on the manpower. Because we do want to make sure that our healthcare manpower are properly deployed in the most impactful place. Many of them are very stretched and very tired, and some of them have fatigue. We try to support them as much as we can, but what is most important is all of us do our part to keep the numbers low, to keep the cases low, to help prevent transmission. In this way, we will do our part in helping these healthcare workers. We do have flexibility to expand our ICU capacity, if necessary.

In terms of average length of stay, it is very difficult to have average length of stay for ICU because each case is quite different. There are some cases who went in for a few days, they are able to recover. If their lung function has recovered, we will discharge them to normal wards. But there are some who have been in there for quite some time, some may be more than a month. So, it is not very meaningful to have average length of stay in terms of ICU because it does differ from patient to patient.

Generally, for those who go into ICU, they tend to stay a bit longer because the conditions are more serious. We do keep a lookout for them, we try to provide them with as much support as possible, because in the end, for infections like COVID-19, we depend to a large extent, on their own immunity system to take over, to fight the infection.

Mr Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have two questions. My first question is for Minister Lawrence. Could I ask the Minister to shed some clarity on the rationale behind the action to be taken in the event that a there is an infected staff or pupil in a school. For example, what is the rationale behind decisions, for example, in deciding whether a school should be closed for the day for cleaning or should be close for two weeks or whether Stay-Home Notices should be issued to pupils and staff. I think some parents would like to know more details of this.

My second question relating to our manpower needs. I believe I have asked a Parliamentary Question relating to this. I would like to ask, perhaps, the Minister for Manpower or any Minister, what is the status of the reported 30,000 Chinese workers who were at home much earlier, during the Chinese New Year period. How many of them have returned and if they have not returned, when are they expected to return?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, on the first question on the rationale for whether or not if something were to happen, whether the centre, pre-school or school is closed for day for cleaning or for longer periods of time, it really depends on the particular instance, the incident, the person who is infected, and then, the contacts that that person may have had with people around him or her. And this is done through the MOH team – they go down, they assess, they make a very thorough investigation. If the finding is that there is no exposure at all for that individual with other people around the infected person, then there may not be a need for an extensive closure. And then, you just closed for one or two days, make sure everything is disinfected, cleaned, and then, you can proceed. But, if the assessment is that there is a broader range of context within that particular environment and potentially more people may be impacted, then, they will give the advice to the centre that it is better to close for a longer period of time. So, there is an objective and very thorough assessment made in each and every case.

The Minister for Manpower (Mrs Josephine Teo): Mr Speaker, I believe that Mr Dennis Tan was referring to the initial estimate of the number of PRC workers that were out of Singapore when we started imposing travel restrictions on them returning to Singapore.

A good number of them have not returned. Because, right now, we are requiring approvals before any one of the work pass holders can re-enter Singapore, if they are outside. Actually, that number that is flowing through every day has been slowed to a trickle. In order not to burden our healthcare system, we have prioritised Singapore Citizens as well as Permanent Residents and Long-Term pass holders coming back. Whereas, for foreign work pass holders, we have asked them to stay out of Singapore for the time being and then, when the situation enables us to facilitate their return, we will do so.

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Ministerial Statements. Leader.