Singapore — In Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 27), Finance Minister Lawrence Wong defended the government’s decision to return to more restrictive measures to prevent the spread of Covid infections after the outbreak at the Jurong Fishery Port.
He also appealed to his fellow MPs to help explain to people why these stricter measures were needful.
Mr Wong, who co-leads the multi-ministry task force dealing with the pandemic, said that the outcome could have been “far worse” had stricter measures not been imposed, given the number of yet-unvaccinated senior citizens.
“Are we prepared to live with an outcome where many of them fall sick and even succumb to the illness? Is that something we want to happen, to see happen in Singapore?,” he asked his fellow MPs, some of whom had called for a clearer road map for Singapore’s recovery.
But Mr Wong underlined the fluidity and uncertainty of the pandemic situation, saying “We don’t even know what will happen in the next few days, let alone in the next few weeks or months.”
The Minister mentioned that Singapore’s case numbers had been decreasing steadily at the beginning of the month, only for the KTV lounge cluster to occur unexpectedly.
“No warning, no early indicator, but it struck us,” he said, which was quickly followed by the Jurong Fishery Port cluster that was “much, much more serious.”
Mr Wong said he was aware of people’s frustration with Covid restrictions.
“The minute I announce something, I get it in my inbox already,” he said.
The Minister then called on his fellow MPs to help people understand the need for stricter measures.
“We’ve tried very hard to explain to all of you in the hope that you too understand what an important, difficult but necessary decision this has to be so that you too can do your part as responsible Members of Parliament, in a crisis and pandemic like this, to explain to your residents, to your constituents… why we had to do this.”
Indeed, netizen’s frustrations were reflected in their responses to his speech online.
/TISG
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Lawrence Wong: Quarantine-free travel, loosened restrictions lie ahead