Singapore has sent personal protective equipment to the Batam Health Office at its request as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to escalate in Indonesia, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Monday night.

In a statement shared with the media, a spokesperson also said that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong affirmed Singapore's commitment to work with Indonesia to fight the ongoing pandemic.

The MFA revealed that PM Lee said this in a phone call on March 11 with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, in which both agreed the two countries must further strengthen our cooperation to counter the "common threat".

Additionally, the MFA spokesperson said Singapore has been in close touch with "relevant Indonesian ministries and agencies" on the Covid-19 situation, including regarding Singapore providing medical equipment to Indonesia.

You can read MFA's statement on this in full here:

“Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke to Indonesian President Joko Widodo over the phone on 11 March 2020 to reaffirm Singapore’s commitment to work with Indonesia to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Both leaders agreed that Singapore and Indonesia should further strengthen cooperation to counter this common threat.

Singapore has been in close touch with the relevant Indonesian ministries and agencies on the COVID-19 situation, including on the provision of medical equipment to Indonesia.

The Singapore Government has also contributed personal protective equipment to the Batam Health Office at its request.”

Indonesian official complained S'pore was withholding patient information

This information comes on the back of recent complaints from an Indonesian official who claimed Singapore's authorities were withholding information about three patients from Indonesia who showed symptoms locally before flying into Singapore to receive treatment:

Singapore's Ministry of Health responded that our officials did provide information on the patients through an international reporting system to their Indonesian counterparts:

In a report from The Jakarta Post, however, Singapore's embassy in Jakarta responded that the MOH has a “patient confidentiality and privacy policy", but that there were no restrictions on Covid-19 patients from contacting their respective embassies and that it was their choice as to whether to do so.

“The Singapore government’s first priority is the well-being of the patients,” our embassy said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's government says it is not considering a lockdown of its borders or regions with high incidences of cases yet even though its confirmed Covid-19 case figures surged over the weekend after more than doubling, according to The Jakarta Globe.

Its case count stands at 134 after 17 new ones were reported on Monday evening, according to The Jakarta Post.

Singapore has seen a jump in its imported cases from our neighbouring countries as well, despite them mostly having lower numbers of confirmed cases than us:

Top photo via Tan Tock Seng Hospital Facebook page