As the daily numbers of community cases of Covid-19 dwindle, Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong took the opportunity to exemplify Singapore and ask other countries to follow in her footsteps when dealing with the pandemic.
In a Facebook post yesterday (May 5), ESM Goh wrote that “The COVID-19 pandemic is like a common global examination of the toughest order on the character and resolve of national leaders, governments and societies”.
He suggested that after the pandemic ends, the World Health Organisation(WHO) and other professionals study how each country has handled the situation and the measures that each have taken.
He added that this was not to pit one country against another or to grade their systems. “All countries need to take a serious look at their systems and practices in anticipation of the next pandemic, as indeed Singapore will be doing”.
Rather morbidly, ESM expressed his worry that the next pandemic might be more deadly and combine “the infectiousness of COVID-19 and the deadliness of SARS”.
“For COVID-19, it is telling that there is no global leadership. Sad”, he said, calling for more coordinated efforts the next time a pandemic occurs.
“Tackling transboundary issues requires cooperation amongst all countries”, ESM wrote.
With a falling number of community cases, Singapore is in a position to start the gradual easing of “circuit breaker” measures, the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force announced on Saturday (May 2).
Speaking at a virtual press conference, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong noted that with stricter circuit breaker measures in place for about two weeks, the number of new cases in the community has been on the decline.
He said that some businesses will resume operations from May 12, with a gradual resumption of selected activities and services over a few weeks. /TISG