Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching took to Facebook on Jul. 15 to praise healthcare workers, and to encourage people to continue to do their part in the fight against Covid-19.

As of 12pm on Jul. 16, Singapore has had a total of 47,126 Covid-19 cases, of which 42,988 (as of 12pm Jul. 15) have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

Praise for healthcare workers

In her Facebook post, Ho wrote that she was "in awe" of Singapore's doctors, nurses, and allied health workers for taking care of both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients:

"The team work, the dedication, the professionalism, the willingness to keep an open mind to try and adapt, especially to the covid situation and to the changing knowledge about covid — these have kept our mortality rates very low.

They puzzled over this or that development, kept abreast of data coming from elsewhere, did their own research and trials, supported each other through the toughest moments, and watched their patients like a hawk, mothering everyone through."

Ho also added that the reason Singapore has been able to do all of this is because "our political leadership took the decision to prioritise lives over the economy" by implementing the Circuit Breaker, and emphasised the importance of protecting the elderly population.

"This has kept the serious cases low, and minimised the risk of overwhelming our hospital infrastructure and people resources."

"Let's not waste the sacrifices"

Ho also addressed the economic impact of these decisions, saying that "it will be hard to restart a cold engine."

This, she said, is why Singapore had three supplementary budgets for Covid-19, in addition to the first one. However, she continued, "even a mountain of gold will be emptied quickly if we keep digging into our reserves."

Thus, Ho continued, "Let’s not waste the sacrifices made on all fronts."

She encouraged people to keep wearing masks whenever meeting others, and to limit the number of people of people they meet without masks, such as eating meals together.

She also advised people to avoid parties with "lots of drinking and carousing" without masks, and to avoid moving between groups at any one time, particularly if they have vulnerable people — such as the elderly or immunocompromised people — at home.

"Join different groups if we need to, but keep the masks on, wash our hands, keep a safe distance, and keep the number of groups small and keep the numbers in each group small too."

People on LOA, SHN, or MC should stay home

For individuals serving a Leave of Absence, a Stay-Home Notice, or a five-day MC, Ho advised them to be aware that they might have a higher risk of being a silent carrier of Covid-19.

She also encouraged them to not participate in activities that involve removing their masks or meeting many people from different households, and to stay home as much as possible.

"That [is] the least we can do, to support everyone who has been on the frontlines, in the hospitals, in the ICUs, in the community care and recovery facilities, in the dorms, in the swabbing teams and FAST teams working in the hot zones."

You can read her post, which more than 1,000 reacts, here: