Singapore — There has been praise for the country’s healthcare workers in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic from Ms Ho Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings and wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
She wrote on her personal Facebook page on Wednesday (July 15): “I am in awe of our doctors, nurses and allied health workers, taking care of patients, Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 ones.”
“The team work, the dedication, the professionalism, the willingness to keep an open mind to try and adapt, especially to the Covid-19 situation and to the changing knowledge about Covid-19 — these have kept our mortality rates very low,” she added.
Before the World Health Organisation declared a Covid-19 pandemic on March 11, Singapore’s numbers had not yet risen to what they are now.
But despite the increase, Ms Ho continued: “They puzzled over this or that development, kept abreast of data coming from elsewhere, did their own research and trials, supported each other through the toughest moments, and watched their patients like a hawk, mothering everyone through.”
Ms Ho also emphasised that this has all been doable “bcos our political leadership took the decision to prioritise lives over the economy with our circuit breaker, when we saw community cases rising”.
She added that because of how the country managed to “protect our elderly” it “has kept the serious cases low, and minimised the risk of overwhelming our hospital infrastructure and people resources”.
Unfortunately because of the negative economic impact the virus has had on the economy, Ms Ho also shared that “it will be hard to restart a cold engine”, which is also why the government has needed to have “consecutive supplementary budgets to keep everyone afloat”. But like any other country, it cannot sustain its people forever, explaining “even a mountain of gold will be emptied if we keep digging into our reserves”.
This is also why she appealed to the public: “Let’s not waste the sacrifices made on all fronts.”
“Let’s understand that we can all help by wearing our masks, whenever we meet with others, and limit the number of people we meet without masks such as makan gatherings.”
She cautioned the younger generation that just because they are “healthy” it did not mean that they were not susceptible or were immune to the disease. She urged them to refrain from attending parties “with lots of drinking and carousing, with masks off”, as well as meeting up with different groups, moreover if they had immuno-compromised individuals in their households.
She added: “Join different groups if we need to, but keep masks on, wash our hands, keep a safe distance, and keep the number of groups small and keep the numbers in each group small too.”
She reiterated that individuals “serving a Leave of Absence, a Stay-Home Notice, or a 5-day MC”, should not join in any activities, mostly because they could be silent carriers. She urged them to stay at home at all costs when possible.
Ms Ho added: “That’s the least we can do, to support everyone who has been on the frontlines, in the hospitals, in the ICUs, in the community care and recovery facilities, in the dorms, in the swabbing teams and FAST teams working in the hot zones.”
Lastly, she called on everyone to take care and keep safe, not just for themselves but for all their loved ones and colleagues.
Ms Ho’s post, which received 1.3K reactions, has been shared 92 times and has 122 comments as well.
Many people online agreed with her and thanked both the healthcare professionals and the government for their response to the health crisis on the island.
See her full Facebook post here. /TISG