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In response to the novel coronavirus, the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, accompanied by Ho Ching and Minister of Health Gan Kim Yong, visited the National Centre of Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Jan. 31 morning.

The NCID, a 330-bed purpose-built facility officially opened last September, was set up by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to enhance infectious disease outbreak management, taking over the Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital last December.

Out of 13 confirmed cases reported so far, eight of them are now isolated in NCID after being suspected and subsequently tested positive for the virus infection.

The confirmed cases are all Chinese nationals who arrived from Wuhan. There is no evidence of community transmission in Singapore yet.

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PM Lee was brief by the director of NCID, Leo Yee Sin, on the measures that the centre is taking in light of the coronavirus outbreak. He also met some of the NCID frontline staff during this visit.

Visit to ensure there is coordinated national response

Speaking to the press at a doorstop interview, PM Lee said that the multi-ministerial taskforce was set up when he was away at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. But he had hoped to visit NCID as soon as he could after returning back to Singapore to see the team who had been working around the clock to screen the suspect cases.

He added that he wants to make sure Singapore has a "coordinated national response" should the virus outbreak become an even more serious issue.

Lee also mentioned that the new coronavirus came as a "shock but not a surprise" as the government had been preparing for something like this since SARS, in terms of training people and stockpiling medical resources.

More than a thousand frontline workers are working at NCID and other hospitals as well as entry points like immigration checkpoints.

After visiting the staff at NCID in a closed-door session, Lee expressed the respect he has for frontline workers and is confident that they are well-trained to handle the situation.

Some of these NCID staff members have been through SARS, while others are dealing with an outbreak like this for the first time.

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Long way from community spread

When asked whether the disease outbreak response system condition (DORSC) will be escalated from "Yellow" to "Orange", Lee said that it largely depends on the containment of spread in Singapore as well as the developments of the outbreak overseas. 

Lee, however, assured that we are not anywhere near the community spread.

"If we are vigilant, people come forward, we are a long way from community spread."

Lee reminded members of the public to wear masks only when unwell and practise good hygiene practises.

He also revealed that doctors at NCID have confirmed cases are doing well so far.

"We have done well, in terms of isolating and treating the cases."

Top photo by Zenn Tan