SINGAPORE — Singapore has done about 39,000 tests so far for Covid-19, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Wednesday (March 25), as he warned that the number of cases here would continue to rise in the weeks ahead as citizens return home from overseas.

Delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament on Singapore’s response to the disease, Mr Gan, who co-chairs a government taskforce tackling the virus, said Singapore’s testing frequency so far translates to 6,800 tests for every 1 million people in the country.

This is higher than the 6,500 or so in South Korea and 1,000 in Taiwan, he said.

“These tests are important in helping us to detect as many cases as possible and as early as possible,” Mr Gan said.

EXPECTED RISE IN CASES IN COMING WEEKS

Meanwhile, in the weeks to come, Mr Gan said the number of cases would continue to rise, as some of the 200,000 or so Singaporeans who are overseas return home from around the world.

As of Tuesday, Singapore had confirmed 558 cases of Covid-19 and two deaths.

In recent weeks, there has been a new wave of imported cases.

Singapore’s total more than doubled in the past week alone, with almost eight in 10 cases imported from countries other than China, where the coronavirus originated.

The top three sources of importation are the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US) and Indonesia.

In a separate statement in the House, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, the other co-chair of the government taskforce, said 1,200 Singaporeans were returning home from the UK and US daily.

“With more lockdowns imposed in countries elsewhere, more may want to return here to Singapore and we should welcome them,” he said.

RESOURCES TO DEAL WITH SURGE IN CASES

To slow the spread of Covid-19, Singapore has beefed up its efforts to detect cases by starting contact-tracing as early as possible.

The city-state can now trace up to 4,000 contacts a day and contact-tracing teams have been enlarged from three to 20, Mr Gan said, with manpower from public service agencies including the Singapore Armed Forces.

The authorities have also supplemented contact-tracing efforts with technology. 

Last week, the TraceTogether mobile application, which captures data on people with whom users have come into contact, was launched. 

Meanwhile, Mr Gan said the Government will continue to tap on community care facilities, private hospitals and quarantine facilities, to house patients with mild symptoms. 

This is so that the authorities may focus critical hospital resources on the seriously ill to minimise deaths.

Patients with mild symptoms need limited medical care and “what we need really are isolation facilities to prevent them from infecting others until they are free of the virus”, said Mr Gan.

Mr Gan assured lawmakers that there was no risk of exposure to the infection for the public at large.

“Similar to cases admitted to the hospital, patients will be closely monitored for symptoms and repeatedly tested for the virus,” he said.

“Only when they have fully recovered and tested negative for the virus twice over a period of 24 hours will they be discharged back into the community.”

Dr Chia Shi-Lu, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency, asked Mr Gan if the Government was considering allowing patients with milder symptoms to isolate themselves, as other countries have done. This is because the community facilities may not have enough space if Singapore confirms more cases of Covid-19.

Responding, Mr Gan said that having such patients isolate themselves at home was an option, but it was not needed for now because the community facilities were still available.

“We do have plans if the situation warrants it to allow the milder cases to self-isolate at home. We will serve them home quarantine or stay-home orders to allow them to recover at home,” he said.

Separately, Nominated MP Walter Theseira asked if Singapore would do voluntary random testing on Singaporeans to investigate if they had been exposed to Covid-19, since reports elsewhere suggest that a large share of cases were asymptomatic.

Mr Gan replied to say that the professional assessment was that those with very mild or no symptoms were unlikely to spread the virus, and the risk of transmission was significantly lower.

He added that the authorities were doing studies on surveillance as well as serological tests to determine whether there were “underlying cases” that have gone undetected.

REDUCING BURNOUT FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS

Mr Gan also paid tribute to Singapore’s healthcare workers, whom he called the city-state’s “most important resource”.

Noting the heavy workload and stress that they face every day, he said the surge in patient numbers due to Covid-19 meant that some were doing longer shifts and others had taken on extra roles.

Healthcare institutions will ensure that employees are well-rested and have instituted measures to reduce burnout, such as counselling services and peer-support programmes, Mr Gan added.

“Most importantly, every case we can avoid will help to lighten their load. Hence, each of us can help by doing the right thing to reduce the risk of transmission,” he said.