The Singapore government has no plans to raise the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) to Red, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong at a press conference today (Feb. 14).
DORSCON Red is a "rumour"
The government is not raising the DORSCON level to Red even though it has activated Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPC) to better detect infected patients.
Gan was responding to a question on whether this step up is a sign that the government is raising the DORSCON level to Red.
"Please help me stop the rumour," said Gan.
"It is difficult enough, challenging enough for us to try to stop the spread of the virus, we don't really want to have to spend effort in stopping the spread of the rumours"
Activating Public Health Preparedness Clinics is additional line of defence
Getting people to visit the Public Health Preparedness Clinic (PHPC) is an important step in strengthening Singapore's primary care, and it plays an important role in detecting and managing patients who have been infected with Covid-19.
The number of patients who are infected with Covid-19 is only a small percentage of the 30,000 patients who seek medical help for respiratory symptoms every day.
These PHPCs are our "very important line of defence....not just for Covid-19 but for all illnesses," said Gan.
"Therefore we are stepping (these clinics) up to PHPCs so that we can resource them, support them, organise them. There are clear clinical guidance on how to treat these respiratory patients."
Co-chair of the multi-ministry task force, Lawrence Wong, added that designating Public Health Preparedness Clinic (PHPC) is an "additional line of defence" so that the authorities can intervene early on the detection of Covid-19 cases.
Top image via Gan Kim Yong/Facebook, Gov.sg