Progress Singapore Party's (PSP) secretary-general, Tan Cheng Bock, said to the press at PSP's headquarters that people should collectively work on the containment of the Wuhan virus in Singapore and "let's not have any blame game".
Tan officially opened the party's headquarters at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre on Jan. 27 morning. The open house was attended by over 40 members of the party.
Photo by Rachel Ng.
Be very careful with handling the Wuhan virus
Tan said that Singapore has to be very careful with the Wuhan virus and that if the new coronavirus continues to spread in the country, it will be "not wise to hold the elections so fast", taking into the consideration of large congregations of people at rallies during the campaigns.
The former People's Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament and retired medical practitioner recalled that dealing with a new infectious virus is definitely not an easy task.
He said that the government took quite a while before they could fully understand the spread and the methods of containment of the SARS virus in 2003.
Photo by Zheng Zhangxin.
Back then, Singapore was hailed as having "the toughest measures in the world" to halt the spread of SARS by a BBC news programme.
Notably, Tan self-imposed a quarantine at home for himself after discovering he had treated a SARS patient. While being quarantined at home, the former Ayer Rajah MP addressed Parliament via a video link-up.
Having said that, Tan expressed concerns about how the fact that shopping and retail areas are connected to some hospitals in Singapore, which may affect the containment of Wuhan virus.
"I see some of the patients having their drips, all walking around in the coffee shop. My goodness, I worry."
He shared that his preference would be to have standalone hospitals as compared to the integrated ones that we have today.
Don't play the blame game
Tan also urged Singaporeans to avoid any blame game and focus on containing the disease.
"Don't care which political party you belong to, the problem is there, let's all work together, play our part. Now our focus is 'let's contain it'."
"It's easier to blame people but I think let's us work as a team now to contain this illness," Tan added.
Here are some precautionary measures introduced by the multi-ministerial task force this morning (Jan. 27):
Top photo by Rachel Ng