•The island state is no longer discouraging residents from wearing them in public, and will distribute reusable face masks from Sunday
• Prime Minister Lee says the decision was made following new evidence that an infected person can show no symptoms yet still spread the disease
A woman wears a face mask in Singapore on Thursday, as the spread of Covid-19 continues. Photo: Reuters
Singapore reversed its position on masks on Friday, saying it would no longer discourage residents from wearing them in public and would distribute reusable face masks from Sunday. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made the statement alongside his announcement that schools and most workplaces would be closed from early next week, as part of increased measures to stem the coronavirus outbreak as infections surged in the past month to more than 1,100 as of Friday.
Lee acknowledged that health authorities had previously urged residents not to wear surgical masks unless they were unwell – with their exhortations appearing on the front pages of local newspapers – and attributed to the change to new research and the spike in cases. “We now think that there are some cases out there in the community going undetected, though probably still not that many,” he said in a national address, his third since the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We also now have evidence that an infected person can show no symptoms and yet still pass on the virus to others … Therefore we will no longer discourage people from wearing masks.”
An employee wearing a face mask waits for customers at a fruit stall in a Singapore food court. Photo: AFP
While the World Health Organisation had previously said there was no need for people to wear masks, it has of late begun to reconsider its position, as has the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Some experts say the mask-wearing culture in places like Japan and Hong Kong has helped control the rate of infections there.
Research published by the Nature science journal on Friday, based on a study of more than 200 people, found surgical masks could “significantly reduce detection of coronavirus and influenza virus in exhaled breath and may help interrupt virus transmission”.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged during a Fox News interview on Friday that the United States would soon expand its recommendations and suggest Americans consider wearing face coverings in public.
“Because of some recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak, as opposed to coughing and sneezing, the better part of valour is that when you’re out, and you can’t maintain that [recommended] six-foot distance [between people], to wear some sort of facial covering,” he said.
From Sunday, the People’s Association – a statutory body that oversees neighbourhood grass roots committees in Singapore – will distribute reusable masks to residents.
In February, the government distributed 5.2 million surgical masks, with each of Singapore’s 1.37 million households given four masks.
Kenneth Mak, the director of medical services at the Ministry of Health, said recommendations on mask-wearing were “risk-based and evidence-informed, and it relates to our understanding of what the risk of community spread is and our understanding of what the mode of transmission is in Singapore”.
Full story at https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3078399/coronavirus-whats-behind-singapores-u-turn-wearing
Never forget, and never forgive those clowns who supplied misleading information at the onset.
Reader says ST edited his letter out of context to support Govt’s call not to wear masks if one is well
In Jan this year when the coronavirus outbreak started to unfold, a member of the public Dr Kho Kwang Po wrote to ST Forum wanting to educate the public on the importance of wearing masks.
However, at the time, the government was of the opinion that people should only wear masks if they are ill. They should not be wearing any masks if they are well.
Dr Kho’s letter was published under ‘Forum: Excerpts from readers’ letters‘ in a short paragraph on 24 Jan:
Reading the ST Forum letter from Dr Kho would have given the impression to readers that he supported the government’s call to wear masks only when one is ill, and if one is well, he should not be wearing any masks.
Dr Kho: ST edited my letter to make it look like I supported the ‘no mask if not sick’ advice
Today (10 May), Dr Kho broke his silence revealing on his Facebook page for the first time that actually Straits Times edited out a crucial sentence which altered the main point of his letter.
As far back as Jan, Dr Kho was actually advocating that people should wear masks regardless if one is ill or not.
“Straits Times forum has the bad habit of editing letters to reflect or confirm their own or govt’s stance on various issues… like mask usage,” Dr Kho lamented.
“They edited my letter to make it look like I supported the ‘no mask if not sick’ advice of the govt. This is completely deplorable and irresponsible.”
Dr Kho then went on to say that Straits Times actually deleted the following important sentence from his letter:
“(This) was deleted to make it appear I agreed with the govt’s disastrous no mask advice supported by Dr Leong Hoe Nam, Prof Dale Fisher and MOH,” Dr Kho added.
Another Facebook user replied to Dr Kho, “Why bother to write. I have given up long ago. No longer interested in anything here. Waiting to live out my life elsewhere.”
ST Editors appointed by government
In 2011, notes written by US Embassy staff in Singapore were leaked online via Wikileak. In one of the documents, it recorded conversations between then ST US Bureau Chief Chua Chin Hon with the US Embassy staff.
Chua lamented that the ST editors have all been groomed as pro-government supporters and are careful to ensure that reporting of local events adheres closely to the official line. He said that none of them has the courage to publish any stories critical of the government.
Chua also revealed that the Singapore government has an established track record of using the press, the ST in particular, to shape public opinion. He noted how the government intends to push a certain policy is often foreshadowed by extensive media coverage (published before the official policy announcements).
As an example, he pointed to the government’s decision to assist retirees who lost investments in “mini-bonds” following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. That official decision to help the retirees was announced after a spate of media coverage casting the retirees’ plight in sympathetic terms, before the government came to the “rescue”.
Given Chua’s testimony, it’s not difficult to understand why Straits Times would want to edit a reader’s letter in support of government’s call not to wear masks if one is well, even though that was not the intention of the reader.
https://www.onlinecitizenasia.com/2020/05/10/reader-says-st-edited-his-letter-out-of-context-to-support-govts-call-not-to-wear-masks-if-one-is-well/
Xia Suay Chan wears a mask these days.......does he feel shiok shiok?
Chee Soon Juan says it again: 2 mistakes worsened Covid-19 crisis
Opposition politician Chee Soon Juan has said it again that mistakes made by the Government led to a worsening of the Covid-19 crisis in Singapore.
In a video posted on Facebook on Thursday (April 16), the Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) criticised Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his government for, at the beginning, instructing the people not to wear masks if they were well.
Dr Chee said Mr Lee’s second mistake was “telling people to go out and conduct our lives normally when he should have given clear instructions for everyone to stay home”.
However, he said, the “bigger problem is that when (PM Lee) realised that he was wrong, he couldn’t bring himself to tell everyone that it was the wrong advice”. The Government instead issued a “neither-here-nor-there statement that was as clear as the gravy in your mee siam”. It said: “The Government is no longer discouraging you from wearing masks.”
The SDP leader added that not admitting to wrongs was “the attitude of arrogance that comes with unchecked and unchallenged power that causes huge problems for this country”.
He said: “When you cannot admit to your mistakes, you cannot correct them.”
Dr Chee then pointed to the missteps before the spike in cases at the foreign worker dormitories, criticising the excuse given later by National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19, that the authorities did not have the benefit of hindsight when it came to those cases.
Referring to the activities of PAP politicians at a time when the people were being told to stay at home, Dr Chee pointed out that Mr K Shanmugam, Mr Desmond Lee, Mr Teo Chee Hean and Mr Goh Chok Tong were all out on walkabouts during the pandemic and introducing their party’s new candidates.
He added that, in contrast, the SDP had cancelled its 40th-anniversary dinner on Feb 8, an event that had been planned months earlier.
“So, Mr Lee will not apologise for telling Singaporeans not to wear masks, Lawrence Wong will not admit that it was an oversight regarding the foreign worker infections, and Dr Chia Shi Lu will not concede that he should not have gone to the hawker centre for a walkabout during the lockdown,” he said.
“This Covid crisis has forced us to confront this reality,” Dr Chee noted and called on the people to stand with him on his quest for political change in the country. /TISG
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/singapore/chee-soon-juan-says-it-again-2-mistakes-worsened-covid-19-crisis/ar-BB12ThEd?ocid=spartanntp
Two fucktards caught a second time for not wearing face masks, each fined $1000!
In an open letter to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a man has vented his frustration with the way the Covid-19 situation has been handled.
Mr Visva felt that Hong Kong had managed to do better than Singapore in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic despite being plagued by riots and political unrest.
https://www.facebook.com/vijay.visva/posts/10163336168010125
Follow-up post: https://www.facebook.com/vijay.visva/posts/10163368234470125
If you forgot to mask up, could always pretend you are jogging, because jogging equals doing strenuous exercise equals no need to wear a mask heh.
PSA: the cloth face masks issued by our "generous" government are near useless!!!!!
LA Times: From ‘gold standard’ to a coronavirus ‘explosion’: Singapore battles new outbreak
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-14/coronavirus-surges-migrant-workers-in-singapore
Just weeks ago, Singapore was a coronavirus success story, admired for pinpointing infected patients and isolating their contacts with brisk efficiency, all while causing minimal disruption to an economy that was the envy of Asia. But the island city-state is now battling to control an enormous outbreak spreading among a population that officials had mostly overlooked: the migrant workers who form the vast but unseen engine of Singapore’s prosperity. The new wave of infections offers a stark illustration of the continued risks facing one of the world’s most densely inhabited regions — and of the coronavirus’ often disproportionate toll on the poor and marginalized. COVID-19 cases in Singapore have tripled since the start of the month to more than 3,200, with most of the new infections found in laborers from India, Bangladesh and other countries who live in crowded, airless dormitories on the edges of the modern, manicured city-state they’ve helped build. The dormitories — where workers often are made to sleep 20 to a room in bunk beds, share kitchens and bathrooms, and enjoy hardly any personal space — have allowed transmission of the coronavirus to explode. Singapore said Tuesday it had quarantined eight dorms and would lock down dozens of others, effectively confining 200,000 workers to their rooms as authorities ramp up testing and isolate the infected. “People are scared,” said Kiron, a 35-year-old construction worker from Bangladesh who lives in one of the dorms. He asked that his full name be withheld to protect his job. “You don’t know if you will be the next one to get sick.” After avoiding a lockdown for months, and after Harvard researchers had praised Singapore as the “gold standard” in detecting new infections, the government last week closed schools and nonessential businesses and ordered residents to shelter indoors as much as possible. Infections had already begun to rise, and in recent days they’ve soared: On Monday, Singapore recorded an all-time high of 386 new COVID-19 cases, nearly all among migrant workers in dorms. The crisis has laid bare the dizzyingly unequal conditions endured by Singapore’s army of 1 million imported, low-wage laborers who — not unlike farmworkers in California or construction crews in the Persian Gulf — make up a largely invisible underclass in this wealthy nation of 5.6 million. “Singapore’s entire economic model is to reap the benefits of the cheap labor of the Third World in order to create our so-called First World economy,” said Alex Au, vice president of Transient Workers Count Too, an advocacy group that works on migrant labor issues. “It worked fine when you could completely segregate them from Singapore society and house them in dormitories in far-out parts of the city. The only problem is a virus comes along that does not respect this apartheid-type of segregation, and then you have an explosion.” Hired on short-term contracts with no chance at long-term residency or citizenship, about 500,000 migrants, mostly from South Asian countries, work on construction sites, assembly lines and shipyards. Most earn about $500 per month, according to activists, compared to more than $3,200 for the average Singaporean. About 200,000 live in 43 purpose-built dormitories on the outskirts of the city, which is slightly larger than the San Fernando Valley. One of those dorms now has more than 700 coronavirus cases, one-fifth of the country’s total. They’re not often seen, or even if they are — when they’re cleaning our trash, building our buildings, gardening our parks — they’re kind of invisible,” said Laavanya Kathiravelu, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University who studies migrant labor. “When something like this happens, unfortunately, that’s when they become visible.”
Relax, we are now at DORSCON PINK, haven't reached red yet. ;)
Recap of the clown prince's foolish opinion proffered in Jan:
PAP fucked up big time, and was forced to change tack. Not just embarrassing for them, us peasants also suffered the consequences of heeding their "no need to wear mask" bullshit to the tune of more than 1100 infections and 6 deaths.