Singapore—Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, sent an unusual but timely gift to all the Members of Parliament recently—hand sanitizer.

A representative from Temasek Holdings, where Mrs Ho is the chief executive officer, told TODAY Online that MPs and their teams had received these bottles of sanitizer to ward of getting sick during flu season, which in Singapore occurs between May and July, as well as between December and February, each year.

The public was alerted to the gift of the bottles of Woodward’s alcohol-free hand sanitiser from Mrs Ho when Worker’s Party (WP) leader Pritam Singh posted photos of the gift on his Facebook account.

“All the WP MPs received an unusual but welcomed package today – hand sanitizers – courtesy of Mdm Ho Ching. I am sure the PAP MPs also received the same, but it was thoughtful of Mrs Lee to include us. The package was accompanied with an individualised note, sharing that hand sanitizing would better protect us and our families, our constituency volunteers and residents in view of the twice-a-year flu season.”

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The WP leader also voiced out his interpretation of the gift, whether or not Mrs Ho meant it this way. In a lighthearted vein he wrote that he was taking the gift to mean that the opposition has an important part in the political system.

He wrote, “Even so, clean hands are a very powerful metaphor for anyone in public office! This is something that must be a given, and intuitively understood and internalised by any serving WP MP or prospective WP candidate. For present purposes, I will liberally interpret the receipt of the hand sanitizers to mean that the opposition have an important role to play in our political system too! ?“

However, Mr Singh ended his post on a more practical note, encouraging people to get their flu shot. “Coming back to the flu season, do consider heading to your GP or the nearest polyclinic to get your flu shot. You can pay for it with your Medisave balances as flu shots are an approved vaccination under the Ministry of Health, Singapore National Adult Immunisation Schedule (NAIS).”

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The spokesman from Temasek Holdings told TODAY, “They are just simple ways that Members of Parliament and their teams can protect themselves from the spread of flu.

As you may have seen, the strain of flu this season is quite serious. Basic steps to guard against the spread of flu and other viruses can include frequent washing of hands with soap, or the use of sanitisers, and particularly for people with lower tolerance or pre-existing conditions, to get a flu shot to guard against the spread of flu.”

TODAY reports that in the final week of May, more than 3,000 patients have been treated for acute respiratory infections at polyclinics, as reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on June 6, around the same number as last year. /TISG

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