Ong Ye Kung says gov’t ‘always planned for big surge’ in COVID cases, but netizens are unconvinced

Singapore — In Parliament on Monday (Oct 4), Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that the government had always planned for the possibility of a “big surge” in Covid-19 infections.

The country has seen its largest numbers of new daily Covid cases recently, despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Every day since Sept 28, Singapore has had over 2,000 new Covid-19 cases, with 2,909 being the highest number of cases recorded on Oct 1. 

The vast majority of those cases are mild or asymptomatic, and most new Covid patients have qualified for the Home Recovery Programme, which was established in mid-September.

Ms He had asked Mr Ong, “How many cases were we planning for that event before this current surge? Was it 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000?”

In reply, he said, “The Member seems to have a narrative that we… did not plan for all this. On the contrary, we have always planned for a big surge.”

He added that he and the other ministers in the multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) assigned to tackle the pandemic had warned often concerning the rise in cases as well as deaths.

The Health Minister also alluded to the projection from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health’s that said the case number could increase to 10,000 daily.

“Many of the protocols were designed at a time when the public wants to see us snubbing out every single cluster, and so we have all these tight protocols, but now we are in the phase of trying to live with COVID-19,” Mr Ong added.

He did admit, however, that the Home Recovery Programme has had a lot of hiccups, as it was still in the pilot phase when the surge occurred. 

“All the complaints about conveyancing, calling, not getting in, people not getting responses, is not because the beds were totally full, but processes with regard to the HRP was not totally ready and we were caught by the sudden increase,” Yahoo News Singapore quotes him as saying.

However, netizens commenting on the minister’s remarks did not seem convinced of the government’s preparedness.

Some wrote they were confused by “contradictory” messages from the MTF.

At least one commenter brought back Mr Ong’s own words from last July.

/TISG

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