Hansard, Wednesday, 25 March 2020

Hon Members. Today, Singapore is in the midst of tackling the COVID-19 threat. We are working hard to keep all Singaporeans safe, pressing on with our efforts to mitigate the risk of local spread and to reduce the further importation of cases. We should remain on guard but never let COVID-19 paralyse us as a society.

Parliament is our nation’s law-making body. As parliamentarians, all of us have pledged to discharge our duties and serve Singaporeans to the best of our abilities. We must remain steadfast in carrying out these responsibilities effectively despite the challenging circumstances posed by COVID-19.

Nevertheless, it is equally important to protect everyone’s well-being even as we conduct our proceedings. We must maintain our vigilance and do our utmost to comply with the necessary precautions as advised by the Government’s Multi-Ministry Task Force.

Hence, beginning today, we have implemented safe distancing measures for all hon Members. During Sittings, Members are seated at spaced intervals – as you can see now – both within the Chamber and extending to the galleries at other levels. Members will also be taking their refreshments in separate groups to further reduce mingling. To complement the maintenance of good personal hygiene, the respective groups will further use separate restrooms.

These steps are aligned to the stricter safe distancing measures which the Taskforce had announced last week to prevent further spread of COVID-19 cases. Over the weekend, the Public Service Division further issued specific guidelines to intensify the implementation of safe distancing measures across agencies.

Let me assure Members that no matter where you are now seated, you can still make your speeches and present your impassioned ideas here in this Chamber. The microphones placed near you will duly capture and record your speeches.

This is the first time ever that we have spread out the seats for Members in such a manner, and over two floors. Members of the public and media at the galleries will also be seated at spaced intervals. It will take some getting used to so thank you, hon Members and everyone here, for your cooperation as we all play our part in being socially responsible.

As we cannot be certain how long COVID-19 will be with us, we will continue to monitor all advisories to see if further precautionary measures should be implemented for forthcoming Sittings.

Beyond Sittings, our measures in Parliament also extend to the staff here at the Secretariat and to all visitors to the House. Since early February, we have steadily stepped up the necessary precautions in line with all advisories issued. The measures include having the temperature of all staff and visitors screened before entry, requiring them to declare their overseas travel history and maintaining a contact list for all visitors.

As the on-going COVID-19 situation evolves, we have been regularly reviewing and updating business continuity plans. Our Secretariat workforce has been split into separate teams, with distancing measures rolled out for all staff. The measures include telecommuting, staggering working hours, splitting shifts and working from separate locations within the House. We have also reduced and set limits on the number of students for our educational tours of the House. We will do our best in ensuring that these adjustments do not compromise the quality of services and operations that remain available and uninterrupted to hon Members and the public.

It is not business as usual as we deal with COVID-19. We will face varying degrees of inconveniences and disruptions to our daily lives, routines and even our economy, which has a very real impact on all Singaporeans. Yet, we must take all precautionary measures seriously and fully comply with them to prevent its further spread.

We have done it before for SARS and H1N1, and such collective social responsibility by Singapore and Singaporeans is how we will ultimately prevail over the spectre of COVID-19. Let us also do this as Singapore (SG) United – by looking out for the most vulnerable amongst us, and supporting and encouraging one another in keeping ourselves, our families and friends, as well as our co-workers in Singapore safe.

Order. Questions for Oral Answer.

1 Mr Terence Ho Wee San asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth with the evolving COVID-19 situation (a) whether Singapore will heighten measures to ensure safety and welfare of participants in the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2020; (b) how will the COVID-19 situation affect the attendance of SIFA 2020 events; and (c) whether there are proposed plans to give further support to the arts community for this annual festival.

Mr Speaker, the Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA) is commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC) and presented by Arts House Limited (AHL).

The top priority of NAC is to ensure the safety and well-being of all patrons, performers and crew involved in SIFA 2020. Given the evolving COVID-19 situation, NAC has decided not to stage SIFA 2020 as planned from 15 to 31 May 2020. This was not a decision taken lightly, but was made because global restrictions on travel, together with our own precautionary and safe distancing measures to reduce local transmission of COVID-19, would have a significant impact on the overall festival experience. NAC will work with AHL towards an exciting SIFA line-up in 2021.

In addition, NAC and AHL will work with local arts groups involved in SIFA 2020 – namely Nine Years Theatre, The Finger Players, The Necessary Stage and Toy Factory Productions – to explore how they can offer innovative arts and culture experiences in the coming months, based on their SIFA works. These could include webcasts, behind-the-scenes profiling, as well as digital conversations.

I encourage the arts community to likewise explore digital-based presentations of their work, so that they can continue to engage existing audiences, and develop new audiences, even in the current situation. For example, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra has made available its "Dabao" digital concert series on Facebook. NAC is also engaging potential partners to explore ways to support the online presentation of artworks and productions by the arts community. I urge those who have capability in this area to support others who may not have the same experience and proficiency.

As mentioned during the MCCY Committee of Supply debate on 6 March 2020, the Stabilisation and Support Package announced at Budget 2020 includes support for arts practitioners – both organisations and individuals – during the COVID-19 situation, in addition to broad-based measures such as the Self-Employed Persons Training Support Scheme announced by the Ministry of Manpower. MOF has given notice to table a Supplementary Supply Bill to give greater support to Singaporeans. NAC has been engaging the arts community on these measures, for instance, the Capability Development Scheme for the Arts (CDSA) which will help organisations and individuals upskill their capabilities and position themselves well for the post COVID-19 recovery.

NAC is monitoring the situation closely and welcomes suggestions from our arts community on how we can address the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 situation together.

Mr Terence Ho.

Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. I have three supplementary questions. One, in view of the cancellation of SIFA, are there any plans to turn this into a #SGUnited Digital Arts Festival, by making the arts accessible and available? Two, whether more can be done to engage our local freelance artists and arts groups for the future SIFAs and for other art events to make the local artists and arts companies as the preferred choice for programming? Three, can SIFA also explore to work with the Giving.sg to encourage online giving to the arts, such as turning the refund of tickets into donation and that could also apply to other arts companies?

Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Ho for the questions. On presenting a digital format of SIFA 2020, as mentioned in my reply, the Festival Director is already in talks with the local production companies on how they could re-purpose or adapt their works planned for this SIFA into a digital format, but probably in different versions because performing arts is best enjoyed live, in front of you on stage, in a live situation, with live audiences. So, we would have to respect how they would think their works can be best presented and we do encourage them to explore innovative ways, including digital means, to showcase their talents and their works to the audiences.

In terms of local talents involved in SIFA, that has been the mandate and vision of SIFA over the years. Being a pinnacle arts festival of Singapore, we would like SIFA to allow our talents to showcase the creativity, their works, their talents, but also the chance to interact with overseas performers and arts groups. So, for example, for the last two editions in 2018 and 2019, we have local artists involved in half of all the productions and programmes, and that will continue to be the case for future SIFA editions.

As to encouraging audiences who have bought tickets for SIFA to donate the ticket refunds to the arts, yes, I think that would be a good suggestion that AHL could perhaps look at in terms of a platform. But giving to Giving.sg is already a platform for all to donate to a cause or a particular beneficiary of their choice. But I would just like to also clarify that, for example, the local productions for SIFA are all local commissions. So, the refund of tickets does not have any impact on the ticketing revenue for these groups. They would already be commissioned works and therefore, AHL – the organiser of SIFA – would already be working with them on their costs.

2 Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) in the past five years, how many persons have escaped the imposition of the mandatory caning sentences upon being convicted for committing serious sexual offences such as rape by reason of them being above the age of 50; and (b) whether the Government has plans to remove the age requirement in order that all such convicted persons, irrespective of their age, will be imposed caning sentences so long as they are assessed to be medically fit.

There are two serious sexual offences in the Penal Code that attract mandatory caning, namely: aggravated rape and aggravated sexual assault by penetration. In the past five years, 13 offenders above 50 years old were convicted of these offences. Caning was not imposed on them, as they were above 50 years old.

For such offenders, the courts have the discretion to impose an additional imprisonment term of up to 12 months in lieu of the caning.

The Government regularly reviews Singapore’s criminal justice policies, including our policy on caning. We will provide an update if there are changes to this policy.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon Senior Parliamentary Secretary for her answer. I have a supplementary question, but before that, on a point of elucidation, the focus of my question is whether using the age of 50 is a rational and reasonable differentiating measure to distinguish between those who will be visited with a minimum mandatory caning sentence for committing serious sexual offences on one hand, and those who have committed such offences but escape it because they are above 50.

With your leave, Sir, may I be allowed to use the screen on a point of information?

Yes, please. [Slides were shown to hon Members.]

Obliged. Sir, this is the Criminal Procedure Code in 1900, about 120 years ago, where the stipulation of 50 years is stated at section 278. The life expectancy of persons then, you would see, Sir, was about 48.5 years, in around 1900. So, quite clearly, if I could say it, age 50 then would have been age about 80-plus now.

Finally, Sir, the Criminal Procedure Code in Malaysia; you could see that under section 289(C), males, even though they are above 50 years, but if they are convicted of serious sexual crimes, then they can be whipped, so long as they are medically fit.

So, my question to the hon Senior Parliamentary Secretary is, is there still a basis to maintain age of 50 as a differentiating measure?

I thank the Member for his supplementary question. Indeed, the age limit for caning is a colonial legacy passed by the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements. And the Singapore courts have interpreted the age limit as a proxy to screen out those who are likely to be unfit for caning.

I take the point that the Member has made that health conditions have changed since then. The Government, as I have mentioned earlier, regularly reviews Singapore's criminal justice policies including our policies on caning. We will look at the trends and statistics of offenders above 50 years old who commit serious offences and review, among other things, the age limit of caning.

3 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how many factories run by local SME businesses are currently based in China, namely Hubei, Zhejiang, Henan and Guangdong; (b) whether the Ministry foresees a need to relocate these factories for the businesses' long-term survival and to address supply chain changes; and (c) for SME businesses that wish to move their operations, whether any assistance is available to them.

Mr Speaker, Sir, Mr Saktiandi filed this question earlier.

The global situation has now changed and the provinces in China mentioned in his question are no longer the places with the highest number of newly infected cases. Nevertheless, the essence of the question is still relevant as the principles and approach that we take can also apply to investments in other countries.

Sir, MTI does not have data on the number of factories our SMEs set up overseas. Singapore's Direct Investment Abroad across Hubei, Zhejiang, Henan and Guangdong contributes about 17% of our total Direct Investment Abroad in China.

The situation in China is stabilising with a progressive return to normalcy. Across China, many companies have gradually resumed their operations. A survey conducted in late-February by the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (SingCham) showed that around 70% of Singapore companies had started resuming operations. We can expect this figure to rise as the situation in China gradually improves. For example, data from middle of March showed that around 80% of Chinese workers have returned to work from their hometowns. The PRC Ministry of Commerce has also introduced measures to support foreign companies, including expediting licence approvals and resolving labour shortages.

Whether Singapore SMEs based in these four Chinese provinces will relocate their factories is a commercial decision that they have to make. Businesses regularly review their markets and supply chains. Given the size and growth potential of China's economy, many businesses are likely to see continued value in keeping some production capabilities close to their final demand markets in China.

SMEs that seek to relocate operations may tap on the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) to purchase equipment, machines and business premises. SMEs looking to explore new markets may also benefit from Enterprise Singapore's network of Overseas Centres, the enhanced Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant as well as the Singapore Business Federation's advisory services on internationalisation.

Mr Speaker, I would like thank Senior Minister of State Chee for the answer that he has given. It is very reassuring that it is only 17% of production of Singapore companies that produce in China and it is testament to Singapore's diversification efforts in terms of manufacturing. But the reason why I am asking this question is because I am raising concerns about Singapore SMEs' exposure to China production, and as a result of the recovery out of China, my concern therefore, further in terms of my supplementary question is, in terms of supply change shifts and production network changes thereafter, even following this event, whether there will be immediate impact on Singapore companies in the future, and how MTI plans to tackle this issue in terms of supply chain shifts into Indochina, and probably into other areas in the future.

Sir, I thank Mr Saktiandi for his supplementary question. He touched on a very important point. Indeed, I think even before the COVID-19 pandemic, companies were already asking themselves how they can strengthen the resilience of their supply chains. And partly arising from the Trade War, people are starting to rethink how they want to structure their supply chains, where they want to focus different parts of the production cycle.

With COVID-19, I think many businesses are now going to face even greater impetus to re-look closely at their supply chain management to strengthen the resilience of their supply chains and not have over concentration in one or two areas, in one or two markets. This is something that I am confident businesses will seriously look at and not just in manufacturing, but I think, across different industries.

On the part of Singapore, we have started these conversations with our businesses and this is part of the process of helping them to transform their operations, helping them to emerge stronger after the crisis is over. We need to start doing some of these preparations now. While we tackle the short-term pain and challenges of the crisis, we also want to look at how we can help our companies to emerge stronger when this crisis is over. So, this includes raising productivity, this includes training their workers, how to adopt technology, but it also includes a careful and thorough review of supply chains and markets.

4 Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Trade and Industry in light of the plunge in crude oil rates (a) whether current retail prices at petrol pumps reflect this trend; and (b) if not, whether the Ministry will implement measures to ensure petrol companies adjust prices accordingly.

Sir, to get petrol at the pump, the crude oil has to be refined and processed. In addition to the cost of refining, there will also be operating costs, taxes, duties and land costs on the one hand, as well as rebates and discounts on the other hand.

Between 2 January 2020 and 9 March 2020, the Brent crude price fell from US$66 to US$34 per barrel. If this price decrease was fully passed through, or in other words, mirrored in retail petrol prices, then retail petrol prices would have dropped by 26 Singapore cents per litre. The listed price of Octane 95 petrol fell by 20 cents per litre, with a slight lag of six days. This represents a pass-through of over three-quarters of the decrease in crude oil price. Based on an in-depth study on retail petrol prices conducted by the then-Competition Commission of Singapore in 2017, a pass-through of around 70% for both price increases and decreases is typical.

Retail petrol prices are determined by the market. Well-informed consumers are a key deterrent against unreasonable pricing decisions. To help empower consumers, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has launched Fuel Kaki, a retail petrol price comparison website. Fuel Kaki helps consumers compare the effective prices of retail petrol, including various discounts and rebates. This is part of CASE's overall efforts to empower consumers to make better informed decisions.

The Government will continue to ensure well functioning competitive markets and empower consumers to make informed decisions.

Sir, I have some supplementary questions. I think the general impression, the feedback from residents, is that the decrease in the pump price is always lagging, much slower compared to if it is going up. So, I would like to ask MTI whether this is closely studied? Is there a study commissioned by MTI to see how much is the lag? And if it is true that coming down is always much slower, compared to going up, then maybe MTI should look into how to regulate that. Secondly, there is not much choice; there are only those few oil companies that we have. So, even if you make information available, for those who need to pump petrol, there is not much choice. So, I think MTI will have to come in to help the consumer to make sure that they got the right deal.

Sir, I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. If we look at the research that was done by the then-CCS, what they found was that the pass-through of an increase in the price of oil – and when you compare the increase with the decrease, the pass-through is about the same. The amount that retail petrol price goes up by, and when you compare that with the amount that it goes down by, as mentioned earlier in my answer.

If you look at the amount of time it takes, actually it takes a little bit longer for the price pass-through to go through when it is upwards. So, the prices take longer to go up on average for roughly the same pass-through, whereas when the price goes down for oil, the pass-through happens a bit more quickly.

So, in summary, basically it takes longer for the pass-through on the upward side, but it is faster when it happens on the downward side. That is the first part of the clarification to the Member's question.

The other point that the Member raised, was about helping our consumers and this is something that CASE has been working on with the Fuel Kaki's website. In the past, when you were comparing the retail price at the pump, the availability of information on discounts and rebates is harder to keep track of – because different suppliers, different promotions – and it was not all together in the same portal.

But today, with the introduction of Fuel Kaki, we have a way for consumers to look at the different rebates, look at the different discounts available and that helps consumers make better decisions because when consumers are aware of the actual effective price with the rebates and discounts included, it helps consumers decide better and that helps make the market function in an even more competitive way.

This is something that we will continue looking at – on how to improve and how to keep on empowering our consumers.

Order. End of Question Time. Ministerial Statement. Minister for Health.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), Written Answer to Question No 5 on the Order Paper is reproduced in the Appendix.]

Mr Speaker, Members. Minister Lawrence Wong and I first spoke about COVID-19 in Parliament in January. And I updated Members again during the COS debate earlier this month. The situation continues to evolve rapidly and we would like to take this opportunity to provide a further update on the latest situation and our strategy going forward. As the task force involves multiple Ministries, may I have your permission, Mr Speaker, to invite the relevant Ministers to respond to clarifications on their respective responsibilities?

Yes, please.

As of yesterday, there are more than 370,000 COVID-19 cases and over 16,500 fatalities from the disease worldwide, and the epicentre has shifted to Europe and, perhaps, United States. The number of deaths in Italy alone has exceeded that in China. World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March.

How the outbreak develops globally will depend on the strategies and efforts of countries around the world. WHO has advised that we can still change the course of the pandemic if all countries take the necessary actions to contain the outbreak.

Otherwise, we will continue to see the number of affected countries and cases rise rapidly. Regions such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, had experienced a reduction in the number of cases a few weeks ago, but have started to see increases in new cases in the past few days driven by imported cases, arising mainly from residents returning from abroad. We face similar challenges.

Currently, in Singapore, we have 558 confirmed cases, of which two have passed away; 155 have been discharged and most of the rest remain stable or are improving. From late-January to February, Singapore saw an initial wave of imported cases from China. Some of these resulted in several local transmission chains, such as the Life Church and Missions and Grace Assembly of God combined cluster which resulted in 31 cases.

However, in recent weeks, we are seeing a second wave of imported cases. In the past week alone, the number of cases in Singapore more than doubled, from 266 to 558 cases. Almost 80% of these new cases were imported, all from countries other than China even though we continued to see around 1,000 residents and long-term pass holders return from China in the past week. The top three sources of importation to Singapore are the United Kingdom, the United States and Indonesia.

And over the coming weeks, the number of cases will continue to rise, as some of our around 200,000 overseas Singaporeans return home from all over the world.

We have slowed the local spread thus far through a three-pronged approach: first, reducing importation; second, detecting and isolating cases early; and third, emphasising social responsibility and good personal hygiene habits.

To reduce the risk of importation, we have stemmed the inflow of travellers by imposing border controls and issued travel advisories to advise Singaporeans to defer their travel plans until the situation around the world is under control. Minister Lawrence Wong will elaborate on this later in his speech.

We have also strengthened checks at our borders to detect and isolate cases before they come into contact with the Singapore community. For example, since January, we have progressively put in place temperature screening, health checks and swabbing at all our checkpoints. All who meet the suspect case definition are conveyed directly to the hospital, while all symptomatic travellers as well as some selected travellers are swabbed as a precautionary measure.

Beyond our checkpoints, we have also put in place a system to detect cases early, through surveillance at hospitals, polyclinics as well as Public Health Preparedness Clinics.

We have re-activated Public Health Preparedness Clinics just over a month ago and today, we have more than 900 clinics offering subsidised consultation and treatment for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents with respiratory illnesses. Singapore residents have benefited from more than 267,000 subsidised attendances at these clinics thus far, on top of that at our polyclinics.

To date, we have done around 39,000 tests for COVID-19. This translates to about 6,800 tests per million people in Singapore, compared with around 6,500 in South Korea and about 1,000 in Taiwan. These tests are important in helping us to detect as many cases as possible and as early as possible.

The moment a case is confirmed, we activate contact tracing to identify close contacts and quarantine them as soon as possible, so as to reduce further spread of the disease.

The Government has put in place many measures to reduce imported cases, and to trace and isolate any such cases as soon as possible to prevent spread. But every one of us needs to play our part in practising good personal hygiene, social responsibility and safe distancing to further reduce the risk of local transmission. We announced several safe distancing measures yesterday. Minister Lawrence Wong will elaborate on these later. I hope that Singaporeans will support these measures and keep up good hygiene habits which will play an increasingly important role in our fight against COVID-19.

During the COS debate, I mentioned Singapore's efforts in developing research and knowledge on COVID-19 and sharing these with other countries. There is an article today in today's paper about an innovative rapid test kit being developed by A*STAR's researchers. We hope they will go to trial soon and give us an additional weaponry against COVID-19.

For treatment, a COVID-19 therapeutic workgroup comprising members from various hospitals across different disciplines as well as Health Sciences Authority or HSA, has been set up to work on guidelines for repurposed drugs with antiviral activity, such as Lopinavir-ritonavir, Interferon Beta-1B and hydroxychloroquine, to treat infected patients in Singapore.

The National Centre for Infectious Diseases or NCID, and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, together with Singapore Blood Blank, have initiated donor recruitment to collect convalescent blood plasma from recovered patients to treat other COVID-19 patients. Our doctors have also been participating in international clinical trials, with collaborators such as the US National Institutes of Health.

For vaccines, scientists all over the world have successfully isolated and cultured the virus, which will aid the development of a vaccine. The international community is also working together to identify vaccine candidates and conduct clinical trials. For example, some institutes such as Moderna Inc have already started human trials as of last week. In Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School is working with Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations or CEPI, and international partners to develop a clinical trial for a vaccine, with plans to start testing sometime this year. With all these on-going efforts, WHO estimates that the earliest a vaccine will be ready would likely be sometime next year.

We do not know how long the pandemic will last, but we have to plan on the basis that COVID-19 will be with us for a long while, maybe till the end of the year or longer and ensure that we have the resources and capabilities to see us through. COVID-19 has also taken a toll on our economy. The impact will extend way beyond the pandemic. Many Singaporeans and businesses will need to make adjustments as this is not something that will be over quickly. The measures we announced yesterday will impact many businesses and workers. The Government will introduce greater support for the economy and our workers in response to this situation.

Members of Parliament have asked about healthcare capacity. We will ensure that we have sufficient capacity to meet our healthcare needs not only for COVID-19 patients but also for other patients.

We had invested significantly in the past to ensure that we have sufficient healthcare capacity to manage infectious outbreaks. The 330-bed NCID was purpose-built with spare capacity and can be further increased to over 500 beds if need be.

To preserve capacity and resources for those who most need it, clinicians at our public hospitals had earlier reviewed their patients and deferred non-urgent appointments and elective procedures where clinically appropriate to do so. They have continued to see patients with higher needs to ensure that they receive timely care. When appointments had to be deferred, the public hospitals have worked to ensure that patients received sufficient supportive care.

We are also exploring collaborations with private hospitals for some non-COVID-19 patients to be cared for there instead. We already have on-going collaborations with some of them and some of these can be stepped up so that we can preserve capacity in our public hospitals to manage the outbreak. Patients transferred to these private hospitals through such collaborations will continue to pay similar rates they would have paid at our public hospitals.

The most important resource, actually, is our healthcare staff. They have been working tirelessly to make sure that our patients, COVID-19 or otherwise, are well taken care of. I want to take this opportunity to thank our healthcare workers once again for their dedication. [Applause.]

We recognise the heavy workload and stress that our healthcare workers face every day. The surge in patient load due to COVID-19 means that some are taking on longer shifts, while others are required to take on additional roles. To ensure the well-being of our healthcare workers, institutions will make sure that their staff are well-rested and have put in place a series of measures to reduce staff burnout, such as counselling services and peer support programmes.

Most importantly, every case we can avoid will help to lighten their load. Hence, each of us can help by doing the right thing to reduce the risk of transmission.

I also want to also thank Singaporeans for your resilience, your understanding and support in adapting to these new measures and changes quickly and putting up with inconveniences and disruptions to your daily lives for the sake of other Singaporeans and our community. With the global situation still evolving and the number of cases rising rapidly worldwide, we must prepare to see more cases here too in time to come. Yesterday, we had 17 local cases in addition to 32 imported ones. We must work together and do what we can to keep the number of local cases down.

With a significant number of imported cases from returning residents and visitors, we have progressively put in place travel restrictions and placed returning residents on the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) and quarantine, but there is still a risk of them leading to more localised transmissions.

As more clusters emerge, our contact tracing, quarantine and healthcare resources will be stretched. If the clusters grow too large, such as those we see in the Life Church and Missions and Grace Assembly of God or SAFRA Jurong, if we have a few of them at the same time, it will be very difficult to contain them effectively, and the pressure on our healthcare system will increase. While we still have sufficient capacity in our healthcare system today, we cannot be complacent and we will need to preserve our buffer capacity.

Previously, all confirmed COVID-19 cases, regardless of severity, were admitted to our hospitals and remained there until they were tested negative for the virus twice, over a period of 24 hours, and this takes up our capacity. We took this conservative approach earlier on in this epidemic, as there was little knowledge about the severity of the disease and we wanted to find out more.

However, we now know that about 80% of COVID-19 cases were mild to moderate. That means many of the COVID-19 cases in our hospitals experience mild symptoms, no more than that of flu. They only require limited medical care and what we need really are isolation facilities to prevent them from infecting others, until they are free of the virus.

Therefore, MOH is tapping on private capacity and setting up community care facilities, such as the collaboration with Concord International Hospital which started accepting well and stable COVID-19 patients last Friday and Mount Elizabeth Hospital which saw its first patient on Monday. We are also converting some Government Quarantine Facilities, starting with D’Resort with a maximum capacity of about 500, for this purpose. As per public hospitals, Singaporean residents and long-term pass holders transferred to these facilities will continue to receive free-of-charge testing and treatment, except for those who have travelled overseas despite the travel advisory and contracted the infection while overseas.

Patients at these facilities will continue to be quarantined and closely monitored, so there is no risk to the general public in the community. Similar to cases admitted to hospitals, patients will be closely monitored and repeatedly tested for the virus.

Only when they have fully recovered and tested negative for the virus twice over a duration of 24 hours, will they be discharged back into the community. At this point, they will no longer have any risk of transmitting the virus to others as they have fully recovered. We will continue to explore the use of such isolation facilities for our well and stable COVID-19 patients. This way, we can focus our critical hospital resources on the seriously ill, to minimise the number of fatalities. But rest assured that any Singaporean who requires medical care, whether for COVID-19 or other illnesses, will receive the necessary treatment and care.

Let me take this opportunity to explain our strategy going forward and share what we can expect.

While we implement plans to ensure sufficient healthcare capacity, it is equally important to prevent new local clusters in the first place. This way, we can try to avoid an exponential growth in the number of infections, which could quickly overwhelm the healthcare system, as we saw in Hubei and Italy; and increasingly so, in many other countries.

Singapore's strategy is to slow down the infection rate and maintain it at as low a level for as long as possible. A lower infection rate will help us to better conduct epidemiological investigations, contact tracing and quarantining of close contacts, so as to prevent further spread of the disease in the community. It also preserves healthcare capacity to care for the more severe cases. With your permission, Mr Speaker, may I display a slide on the LCD screen to illustrate this point?

Yes, please. [A slide was shown to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. If we do nothing, the number of cases will shoot up, like what happened in several cities and countries recently. Then, our only hope is that most of the population get infected and become immune quickly, and the rate of infection will start to slow down as more become immune, or a vaccine or a cure is found. That is when the curve starts to trend downwards.

This scenario is very attractive, we get over with it very quickly, but there are unfortunately, two major risks. First, an uncontrolled spike in the number of cases in a short period of time, like the purple curve, will overwhelm the healthcare system, easily resulting in high mortality rates, and there is no turning back once you are on this track. The second risk is that it is not certain yet that this immunity will be effective or sustained.

So, one alternative, is to introduce stringent safe distancing and other measures to slow down the infection curve, to slow down the infection rate. The number will still grow but if we do it right, we will end up with a lower peak. This is commonly known as flattening the curve, as Members can see, on the blue curve.

But by flattening the curve, we may actually stretch out the pandemic. So, Members see a long tail, meaning it will take much longer for the pandemic to be over. So, for Singapore, today, we are still at the start of the curve, so we have a chance, we have a chance to do neither. We hope, that if we do it right, we can significantly slow down the growth as much as we can, until the whole pandemic is over, without either a sharp peak or a long tail. This may sound impossible, because this are the two curves that have been established by academics. But, impossible as it may sound, we have to try our best to do so.

To achieve this, we have to continue to strengthen our efforts to detect cases early to initiate the contact tracing process as soon as possible to reduce the risk of the infection spreading. In preparation for the expected surge in cases in the coming weeks, we have expanded our contact tracing capacity, from three teams when we started out, to 20 teams today, thanks to manpower support from colleagues from Public Service agencies, including the SAF. We can now trace up to 4,000 contacts each day and will continue to scale up our contact tracing capacity as needed.

We are also leveraging technology to supplement our contact tracing efforts. For example, last week, MOH and GovTech launched the TraceTogether app, which will capture data on whom you have come into contact with for some time. This will be useful if you have come into close contact with a confirmed case which you do not know.

By downloading and activating this app, the contact tracers will be able to inform you early so that you can isolate yourself and protect your family, or receive early treatment if you are already unwell. For those who are concerned about privacy, I would like to assure you that the app does not track your location, so where you go, does not matter, the app does not know. It uses Bluetooth to detect if you have been in close proximity for more than 30 minutes with someone else with the app switched on. I urge Members and all Singaporeans to download the app to protect yourselves and your families.

I have spoken multiple times about the importance of social responsibility, here in Parliament as well as publicly. The Government will continue to put in place measures to protect Singaporeans as I have shared earlier, but the daily actions of each one of us will go a long way in winning this war. If you have been issued with a quarantine order or Stay-Home Notice, please stay at home and abide by the requirements of the order or notice. If you violate them, there will be penalties and the heaviest penalty is that you may infect others, including those you love. If you are unwell, please wear a mask and see a doctor immediately. If you have been given a medical certificate, please stay home for the whole duration covered by the medical certificate. Wash your hands with soap regularly and do not touch your face. It is literally in our hands to contain this outbreak.

In Singapore, we saw a few local clusters emerge where individuals who were feeling unwell or were issued a Medical Certificate but did not minimise social contact and continued to attend work or social activities. We have encouraged employers to support employees to spend the necessary time away from the office so that they can recover.

Studies on COVID-19 have shown that for each ill person who behaves responsibly, we can protect two to three others from being infected. It is not just about ourselves, but those around us too, including our loved ones. For the young and healthy among us, we may get away with a mild cold or cough, but for the more vulnerable loved ones around us, the disease may prove to be more serious. So, we must not take social responsibility lightly.

We have been progressively putting in place safe distancing measures, especially for the vulnerable groups. For example, after the SAFRA Jurong cluster arose, we suspended all senior-activities at Community Centres, Residents Committees, Senior Activity Centres and others. While some Members of Parliament, I think, Ms Denise Phua, asked me at the last Sitting whether we can resume some of these activities, I was very happy to say yes, then. Now, I am afraid it will be a while longer before we do that, to protect the seniors.

Seniors are of particular concern to us. MOH introduced an enhanced set of measures last week together with a set of guidelines to protect our seniors. We encourage seniors to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene like everyone else and engage in more home-based activities rather than joining group activities. For example, they can exercise at home with TV and online exercise programmes, as well as enjoy broadcast programmes covering singing, so they do not need to join karaoke groups, but they can join TV programmes and sing-along; cooking and other programmes by celebrities and People's Association trainers.

Do not go out except for essential activities such as work or to buy food and supplies. Family members and care-givers of seniors should also take precautions such as washing hands with soap and water before interacting with seniors and refraining from visiting seniors if one is unwell.

Each of us needs to play our part to take care of our seniors. With these added precautions in place, seniors can continue staying active and healthy.

The measures we have put in place are extra "brakes" to slow down the transmission of the virus, prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed, help bring the number of cases back down over time, and protect, particularly, our seniors.

Sir, let me conclude. While we should keep a wider physical distance between ourselves and others, we need to close the emotional distance between us. As Prime Minister pointed out, this is as much a psychological battle as it is a medical one. To win the battle, we must close ranks while keeping a safe physical distance. We should not stop caring about fellow Singaporeans or build walls between ourselves. On the contrary, we need to be more united than ever so that we can ride through this crisis together. We can show our appreciation to our frontline workers who are working very hard to keep Singapore clean and Singaporeans safe, and show our support to colleagues and friends who have acted responsibly and isolated themselves when they feel unwell.

The months ahead will be challenging. We need to be prepared for disruptions to our daily lives and changes to how we do things. But I am confident that if we stay united, with a whole-of-society effort, we can get through this together as a nation – SG United. [Applause.]

The Minister for National Development will be making a related Ministerial Statement. I will allow Members raise points of clarifications on both statements after this statement. Minister Wong.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Health has given an update on the global and local situation and explained the public health measures that we have taken so far, as well as how we are managing our healthcare capacity. Let me now elaborate on the other aspects of the work of the Ministerial task force.

As Minister Gan mentioned just now, we experienced an initial wave of imported cases from China, which resulted in some local transmission and local clusters. Now, we are facing a second and much bigger wave of imported cases from the rest of the world, especially from America and Europe. It reflects how quickly virus is spreading around the world outside of China. The number of cases is doubling every four to six days. There are more cases outside China than in China now.

We are not alone in facing this new wave of imported cases. Many places in Asia – Hong Kong, Taiwan are in a similar situation. That is why we have been rapidly adjusting and updating our measures to respond to this new challenge.

We have progressively tightened our border controls and travel restrictions, based on the rapidly changing situation. We started with restrictions, as Members would recall, for travellers from China; we extended the restrictions to other epidemic centres – initially to Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran, then France, Germany, Spain; and later UK, Switzerland, Japan and the ASEAN countries. Eventually, we did not have to do country by country, we covered the whole world.

Earlier this week, we decided to disallow short-term visitors from entering or transiting in Singapore and to limit returning work pass holders to only those providing essential services like healthcare and transport. These are very significant moves for a small open economy like Singapore, where we have always been connected to the world. But these are extraordinary times, this is an unprecedented crisis and we had to move decisively to keep our borders safe.

Importantly, we want to focus our resources on the large number of returning Singaporeans coming back from overseas. We identify those coming back with symptoms as early as possible, right at the airport. We are testing as many as possible and we are expanding our testing capacity. But the numbers are large. Just from UK and US alone, we are getting about 1,200 Singaporeans coming back every day. Every day.

We also know that we cannot rely on tests alone, because someone who tests negative at the point of entry may simply be incubating the virus and could develop symptoms over the following days. That is why it is important to also isolate these returnees and have all of them have to serve a 14-day Stay-Home Notice. They have to stay at their place of residence and avoid contact with others even within the same household.

We now have 38,000 residents on Stay-Home Notices. That is a very large number. And the numbers will rise with the growing number of returnees.

Many are understandably concerned about the risk of the Stay-Home Notice returnees infecting their family members. So, we have just tightened the regime with additional precautions. We are focusing on returnees from the US and UK, given the higher risks, and we are now arranging for them to be transported from the airport directly to designated hotels to serve out the 14-day self-isolation period. These returnees have to stay in their rooms throughout. They cannot use any of the hotel facilities, swimming pool or gym; fourteen days in the room and we will put in place tight security arrangements to ensure this. For those who have already returned and are presently still serving the Stay-Home Notices at home, they, too, can apply to stay in these designated hotels if they so prefer.

This is a huge operational and logistical undertaking, given the volumes of people we are receiving everyday. We are able to make use of the empty bed spaces in hotels but we still need to ramp up manpower to enforce their self-isolation. And I want to acknowledge the hard work of all our public officials who did an excellent job in getting this ready within a very short period of time.

There is no telling how long this current wave of returnees and imported cases will last. There are more than 200,000 Singaporeans overseas. With more lockdowns imposed in countries elsewhere, more may want to return here to Singapore. And we should welcome them. So, we have to be prepared for more returnees and have arrangements to ensure that they are self-isolated for the full period before they can be brought back within our community.

At the same time, we do not want Singaporeans to travel overseas at this time and to compound the problem. That is why we have raised our travel advisory to the highest level to defer all travel. Previously, it was "non-essential". But I think people regard many things as essential. So, we say now "defer all travel". Those who choose to do so will have to pay full costs should they need treatment for COVID-19 when they return. Likewise, they will be subject to a full 14-day self-isolation at the hotel which they will also have to pay in full.

Despite our best efforts at controlling these flows at the borders, we have to be prepared for more cases to emerge, especially given the large number of returnees. That is why it is critical to quickly identify and isolate these cases and their close contacts through our on-going efforts at contact tracing and quarantine. Minister Gan spoke about this and how we are going to ramp up our capacity to do more contact tracing. This is essential because the minute you give up on contact tracing, then you are no longer able to manage the virus outbreak. This is the situation that many countries are facing now – they are no longer able to contact-trace the cases as well as their close contacts. So, we want to continue to maintain contact tracing and put all the close contacts under quarantine.

As of last night, there are around 2,500 persons under quarantine, be it in their homes or in Government Quarantine Facilities. The numbers give you a sense of proportion. We are talking about 38,000 Stay-Home Notices because of the large volume of returnees. But within Singapore, the close contacts, we have 2,500 under quarantine.

We will continue with the tough enforcement for both Stay-Home Notice and quarantine cases, including through all the various means we have put in place –remote monitoring, video calls and random house visits. We have put in place also very strict penalties for those who breach the requirements. They can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to six months, or both. But as Minister Gan said just now, the biggest penalty is not just a fine or even a jail sentence but the costs that you impose on others if you were to breach these rules.

We have an excellent detection system to pick up COVID-19 cases through our contact tracing procedures. One Harvard study called our contact tracing system the "gold standard". But even then, our detection rate is not 100%. It will never be. No system can be 100%. That means that the virus continues to circulate in our population and there are still cases out there in the community which will pop up.

That is our greater concern. We monitor very closely the number of locally-transmitted cases, especially the ones that are unlinked – "unlinked" meaning that they are new, they are popping up and we do not know where they originate from. We are seeing more of such cases in recent days. That is why we need to put in place a whole range of additional public health measures to slow down the spread of the virus within Singapore itself. We can think of these additional public health measures at different levels.

First, we have baseline measures which we are already doing. What is "baseline"? Things like daily temperature taking, seeing a doctor if you are unwell and staying at home and not shaking hands. Now, in true multiracial Singapore style, we have different ways of doing it. You can do the “Salam Mufti”, traditional Chinese style or Namaste. I think all of us are practising this in our daily lives now. We uphold good personal hygiene; wash our hands regularly and do not use our hands to touch our face and we uphold better public hygiene standards. We are stepping this up through SG Clean, a whole-of-nation effort that Minister Masagos is overseeing.

All of these measures should be continued for a sustained period. In fact, some ought to be new permanent norms, like upholding higher hygiene standards and using common serving utensils instead of double dipping. So, even after the COVID-19 outbreak is over – and it will be over after a while – we should continue to practise some of these new norms as a permanent part of our lives. I am not sure about the not-shaking-hands part. Frankly, at some point in time, we might want to get back to having some physical contact, but certainly not now. So, many things we will do on a sustained basis, some on a permanent basis even.

But beyond the baseline measures, we need to rely on additional measures and that is what we call social or safe distancing. We can think of these measures as extra "brakes" that we apply to slow down the spread of the virus. Last Friday, we introduced a first set of safe distancing measures. We suspended senior group activities; we pushed for telecommuting and staggered hours at workplaces; we limited large events to less than 250 persons, and we said seats have to be apart, like what we are doing now in Parliament; and we wanted a 1-metre spacing in public spaces and F&B outlets.

These measures are progressively being implemented. For example, public sector agencies are now pushing very hard on telecommuting. Where it is not possible, for example, for frontline and operational units, the agencies have implemented split teams by location or shifts, as well as staggered work hours, wherever it is practical. But the efforts on telecommuting must go beyond the public sector.

All workplaces must go on telecommuting as default wherever they can. More employers are doing this, but some are still resistant and want their staff to be physically present in their offices when they can actually work from home. So, we will get all employers to push more aggressively on telecommuting. This is the only way to allow Singaporeans to continue working while minimising their movements and contacts outside and it is also how we can reduce the load on our public transport system, especially during peak hours.

The measures introduced last week have brought about changes. There are fewer crowded venues. When you go out, you can see that perceptibly. We now see alternate seats marked in dining venues, including in hawker centres and coffee shops. So, people are seated further apart.

But we have to move faster, much faster. We still hear anecdotes of people going to discos and night clubs, and gathering in large groups. Our big worry is that these can become super-spreader events, spawning new clusters and potential runaway outbreaks. That is why we have proceeded with another set of brakes yesterday – even tighter safe distancing measures with the aim of limiting gatherings outside of work and school to less than 10 persons.

Let me explain briefly the rationale for making these moves. In schools and workplaces, we have been taking precautions. For schools, for example, Minister Ong Ye Kung and the MOE team have put in place a range of measures to keep students safe. They sit further apart in classrooms. CCA activities and inter-school activities are suspended. So, we do not allow intermingling of students outside of the classroom.

In workplaces, too, we are getting employers to take precautions, getting their staff to be seated separately and, as I have mentioned earlier, pushing harder on telecommuting.

But outside of schools and workplaces, we continue to see many gatherings of people and that is what we want to minimise. That is why we are suspending all entertainment venues like bars, clubs and cinemas. We are suspending religious congregations and services. We are suspending tuition centres. Even though the numbers may be small, but children coming to these centres come from different schools and they intermingle. So, we are suspending that. We are cancelling and deferring all events and mass gatherings and we are putting restrictions on retail malls, museums and attractions where they have to reduce the density of people moving in these areas and ensure no coming together of groups of more than 10 persons. These measures will take effect from Thursday, 2359 hours, and will be in place for at least a month until the end of April, that is, two incubation cycles.

With this significant slowing down of activities and movements, we hope we can break the potential transmission chains that may be happening. These are very major moves to slow down the spread of the virus. We recognise the inconvenience and disruption that these measures will bring to people’s lives and to businesses, but we have no easy options. That is the reality that countries everywhere are facing in tackling the virus. The more we try to stop or slow down the virus, the steeper will be the damage on our economies. So, we have to do what is necessary from the public health point of view first to save lives, slow down the virus and then, thereafter, do our best to manage the economic consequences. In the last few days, even as the Task force was deliberating over these measures, we have been sharing them, updating the MOF and economic teams working on the package of measures which Deputy Prime Minister Heng will be announcing tomorrow.

So, I urge all Singaporeans to cooperate and take the latest set of measures very seriously. Our main message to everyone is this: minimise your non-essential activities and your contact with others during this period. You can talk about all the suspensions, different settings, but simple message – everyone minimise your non-essential activities and your contact with others during this period. We must all do our part to stop the spread of the disease and ensure that we do not end up with a major outbreak of new local clusters.

Mr Speaker, Sir, we are now at a critical phase in our fight against the virus. The latest measures may help to slow down the spread of the virus. But it is also possible that despite these measures, the number of infected cases will continue to rise. If so, we will need more drastic measures and that would include suspending of schools and closure of some workplaces, aside from those providing essential services.

So, we will keep the measures under constant review. If the situation worsens, we will apply extra brakes. If the situation improves, we may be able to ease off a little bit but not go back to baseline; perhaps to a less stringent set of measures because the pandemic will probably still not be over for quite some time.

Given that we have been tightening our measures recently, I can understand why Singaporeans may also be concerned about the availability of essential supplies. In fact, we have been planning for potential disruption of supplies, be it food or medical supplies, over many years through stockpiling, local production and diversification of our overseas sources. Minister Chan Chun Sing and the MTI team are overseeing this work and they have been steadily ramping up their efforts across all fronts.

Here, too, we need Singaporeans to cooperate. If many people start to build up their own individual stockpiles at home unnecessarily, it will lead to an apparent shortage on the supermarket shelves and deprive others who may have more urgent need for food and other essential supplies. Such a perception could precipitate more panic buying, which can quickly spiral out of control.

There was, indeed, some concern initially when Malaysia imposed a Movement Control Order earlier this month. But the situation has now stabilised. The flow of goods and cargo, including food supplies, are largely continuing although we still have to be prepared there may well be disruptions along the way. As far as people movement is concerned, we have quickly found accommodations for the Malaysian workers who decided to stay in Singapore and this has allowed essential services like public transport to continue without interruption.

Going forward, the Singapore-Malaysia Special Working Committee, co-chaired by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Senior Minister Dato Sri' Ismail Sabri on the Malaysian side, is discussing a joint mitigation plan to ensure the safe and sustainable movement of people, goods and essential services between our two countries. In fact, if you have been following the news, Malaysia has now just extend its movement restrictions to 14 April, a few more weeks.

If and when the Movement Control Order in Malaysia is lifted, we cannot go back to business as usual and have large groups of people moving across our land checkpoints on a daily basis. That will be too dangerous from a public health point of view. So, we will need extra precautions on both sides, which are being worked out, so as to minimise the spread of the virus across our land borders.

Mr Speaker, I have summarised some of our key strategies in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore.

Underpinning all of these efforts is the need for all Singaporeans to take individual and social responsibility. The fight against the virus cannot be done by frontline workers or Government agencies alone. Each and every one of us has to actively do our part. And there are many things that we all can do, which Minister Gan mentioned earlier: upholding good personal hygiene; taking of temperature daily; seeing a doctor if you are unwell; staying at home if that is the case; and if you have just returned from overseas, ensure you self-isolate for 14 days, even from your family members; and minimising of non-essential activities and contact with others during this period. All of these measures we will try to enforce but ultimately it is about individual responsibility, individual actions to comply with these guidelines.

We are all enlisted in this national effort to slow down the spread of the virus and if we are disciplined about this, we will have a chance to control the situation and to protect ourselves, our family members, and the people around us.

In these difficult times, we see the best of Singapore and Singaporeans at work. We had young people from the Youth Corps conducting door-to-door visits to share personal hygiene and safety tips with the elderly. We have had many volunteer groups like the Singapore Red Cross stepping up their befriending calls to many isolated seniors. We had many individuals and volunteers also packing and donating care packs and items like masks, hand sanitisers and thermometers to the elderly and vulnerable groups.

In these difficult times, we see Singaporeans from all walks of life working flat out to fight the virus.

We have healthcare workers on the frontline making many sacrifices and working tirelessly to care for patients.

We have our public officials working very hard, too, across all the agencies – not everything they do is visible to the public eye. But I can tell you that they are working round the clock and it is incredible what they have been able to achieve, especially given the quick turnaround times. We are literally making new measures every other day, putting in place adjustments to measures almost on a daily basis and so this impacts on communications. We have a huge team working night and day to put out public communications materials to inform the public of all of these updates. We have a huge team on the operational side, be it at immigration or security, going all out to adjust to these changes and ensuring smooth implementation.

From time to time, there will be public feedback, there will be public complaints – they take all of this in their stride. If there are lapses, they try to rectify them as quickly as possible. And I hope the public will cooperate, too. We welcome feedback but you can do your part by ensuring the accuracy of your feedback so that the agencies do not have to waste time and resources to check on each and every information.

There are many more unsung heroes all over the island – in areas like cleaning, security, airport management, media, hotels, F&B, transport and many more providing services to Singaporeans – all still going strong, keeping their spirits high.

And there are many Singaporeans who have stepped up in their own ways looking after one another and caring for our fellow Singaporeans. Words are not sufficient to express our appreciation. Mr Speaker, words are not sufficient to express our appreciation for all of those who are —

Please give me a minute.

Let me just repeat what I said just now. Words are not sufficient to express our appreciation for so many Singaporeans going all out to fight the virus. And I just want to say a big "thank you" to everyone who is doing their part. [Applause]

We recognise that there is a growing uncertainty, anxiety and fear amongst Singaporeans. People are asking many questions – how long will this last? How safe will we be? How will our businesses survive? I receive many suggestions and feedback all the time, every day. Some want more drastic measures. Some say we are doing too much and there are too many restrictions. I appreciate all of the feedback. I cannot reply to each one of them, individually, but the team is looking at all of them and we take all of them into consideration as we develop and update our measures.

In some cases, there are no clear answers and solutions because the situation is so uncertain – so fluid and changing rapidly by the day. But one thing is clear – we are all in this together and we will continue to work through the challenges together, every step of the way.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it has been more than two months since our work on COVID-19 started. It almost seems like a life time ago, but in fact, we are only at the beginning of a very long fight. This will continue for many more months till the end of the year and, perhaps, even beyond.

The coronavirus is, without a doubt, the biggest threat the world and Singapore has faced for decades. So, let us rally together and rise to this challenge because as SG United, we can beat the virus together and we will emerge stronger and toughened after this crisis. [Applause.]

Points of clarifications. Mr Christopher de Souza.

Sir, I thank the Ministers for their heartfelt statements. It looks to be obvious – the COVID-19 outbreak will be long drawn. Singapore's next General Election must be held by April 2021. However, Dr Tan Cheng Bock has suggested that the President can exercise her soft power and form a caretaker government with some of the current Members of Parliament. Then, Dr Tan says, call fresh elections when COVID is no longer a crisis.

In my view, having a caretaker government is not an answer to the long drawn crisis.

So, my question is: from the standpoint of the Constitution, what is the Government's position on such a caretaker proposal?

I have a second question: should the GE be held while COVID-19 is still in Singapore, what measures can be put in place to ensure the safety of Singaporeans during the election?

Sir, the terms of reference of the Ministerial task force does not include consideration of the General Election. Perhaps, I can invite Senior Minister Teo to speak on this topic.

Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Mr Speaker, Sir, we have just heard from Minister Gan and Minister Lawrence Wong on what the situation is. It is a global pandemic and an unprecedented global crisis. It is a difficult time for everyone. In Europe and the US, the virus is still spreading at an exponential rate.

We have twin crises: health and economic. A global recession is imminent. Financial markets are in their worst turmoil since 2008. Hence, on 14 March, Prime Minister Lee warned that we face a grave and extended challenge. The pandemic “is likely to last at least this year, and quite possibly longer”. Even after we deal with this pandemic, the economic repercussion will last longer, with significant and longstanding impact on both lives and livelihoods.

In Singapore, the Government took early and decisive action to protect our people. We have managed the COVID-19 situation for now, with tremendous effort and cooperation from everyone. But the situation remains very serious and continues to develop quickly. We are starting to see another wave of imported cases – mainly from returning Singaporeans. The Multi-Ministry Task Force has introduced measures to deal with this. But the situation may get worse, before it eventually gets better.

Our focus now, of this Government, is on being prepared for the long haul, through the end of this year and beyond, and focus on solving this problem with Singaporeans and for Singapore.

Mr Speaker, the term of the 13th Parliament will end on 14 January 2021. An election must be held within three months of that, which means on or before 14 April 2021.

Ideally, we would like to conduct elections in normal conditions. The present situation is not ideal for holding an election, but that does not mean it makes an election impossible.

As the Prime Minister said, no decision has been taken yet on the timing of a GE. In making such a decision, the overriding concern is what is best for Singapore and for Singaporeans.

Some have suggested only holding elections when we see the "tail-end of the virus spread". And this is, indeed, the dilemma that we face. The Prime Minister has laid out the choices clearly. We can hope and pray that things stabilise, but we do not know when the COVID-19 situation will stabilise – whether it will do so within the next year, by January, or by April 2021. But what we do know is that an election must be held, must take place by 14 April 2021.

The longer we wait, the more unpredictable, difficult and dangerous it could be. Compounding this will be the uncertainty that comes with when the election will be held as we go through the year, trying to face this crisis together.

Alternatively, the country can go for early elections, settle who will lead the country through this major crisis, and give the Government a clear and fresh mandate, a full term ahead and legitimacy to take major decisions, tough decisions in the interest of Singaporeans.

Today, more than ever, we need a government that the people has expressed confidence in, to take us through this unprecedented health crisis, stabilise the economy and safeguard our people's lives and livelihood.

Mr Speaker, Sir, when you are sailing into a storm, you want to be certain who your captain is and that he will not be changed halfway. You want to make sure that he is there together with you, working with you, guiding you through the storm.

It is not a good idea to place all our hopes in the situation improving before April 2021, and add the uncertainty of when an election will be held to the uncertainties that are already ahead of us. However, we should not close off any options.

We have been upfront and open with Singaporeans about the challenges we face, the dilemmas, considerations and different possibilities so that Singaporeans will understand why there might be a need to go ahead.

However, some suggestions about this issue have been misleading and unhelpful. For example, the suggestion to delay the elections beyond the required time-frame of April 2021 until the crisis is over and to have the President form a caretaker government consisting of some of the current Members of Parliament.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I have sought the advice of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on whether this can be done. The advice of the AGC is that to delay an election beyond the required date in such a manner is unconstitutional. The only circumstances when the election can be put off beyond the required date is when a state of emergency is declared.

Mr Speaker, Sir, although Singapore has weathered many crises since our Independence, we have never extended a Government's term beyond the constitutional limit. Singapore is one of the only newly independent Commonwealth countries to regularly hold elections and has never declared a state of emergency since 1965.

Declaring an emergency and putting off elections indefinitely is not a precedent we should set lightly. A President's power to declare an emergency can only be exercised on the advice of the Cabinet. Even if the President proclaims an emergency, given that the incumbent Cabinet remains in office during an emergency, there is no legal basis or practical need for the President to form a new government.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it is not helpful to mislead people into thinking that such an option exists to put off elections indefinitely and for the President to form a new government when this goes against the Constitution.

Even if there is a caretaker government under a state of emergency, it would by definition be a caretaker. It would be hobbled by the fact that it lacks the explicit mandate of voters and would therefore not be in a position to take major decisions on behalf of Singaporeans. This is the reason why constitutional convention requires that a caretaker government not make any far-reaching or long-term measure.

So, this is the fundamental problem. Just when we need a government with a clear mandate to pull out all the stops in a crisis to implement strong mitigation measures, to mobilise our resources and reserves to implement strong economic stabilisation measures to save jobs and livelihoods, and to steer the country through the COVID-19 crisis, a caretaker government would not have a mandate to do so.

How can this be in the best interests of the country and our people?

Sir, to suggest this shows a disregard for or lack of understanding of the Constitution. Putting forward constitutionally unworkable proposals at a time of serious national crisis can only confuse and mislead Singaporeans, to the detriment of Singapore and Singaporeans.

This discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on our elections is an important one. It goes to a matter of principle.

This Government is ever mindful that what is at stake are jobs, businesses and lives. Our decision must be based on what is in the best interests of Singapore and Singaporeans, and how we can move forward together.

On Mr Christopher de Souza's second question – he asked about holding elections safely amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

The safety of all Singaporeans is of utmost importance. To combat the virus spread, we have implemented comprehensive measures over the past few weeks at every level. We have heard Minister Gan and Minister Wong – travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing measures, strengthening our healthcare institutions, workplace measures, protecting our students in schools and supply of essential goods. Even if the election takes place, it will not disrupt any of this. All these necessary measures will still be maintained.

But COVID-19 has created a new normal. Whether elections are held early or later, we will still have to work on the basis that the next election will necessarily be different from past elections. This means that the necessary extra safeguards and precautions must and will be taken, whether the elections are held early or held later, at every step – nominations, campaigning and voting. We will have to make all the necessary arrangements to ensure that parties can campaign effectively and people can vote safely. For example, for campaigning, we can have live-streaming of speeches on the Internet and adequate television time for candidates. For voting, we already have special express lanes for seniors and those who need them. We can also have social distancing while queuing, proper hand hygiene for voting paraphernalia and hand sanitisers for voters. We will learn from the experiences of other countries that are holding elections even during this on-going COVID-19 outbreak.

All these measures and precautions are required to protect Singaporeans. Whatever measures taken will affect all political parties equally.

As the Prime Minister said, no decision has been taken yet on the timing of the General Elections, but we have to plan on taking such additional measures to safeguard the health of Singaporeans. And I stress that these precautions and measures will be needed whether the election is held early or later. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah

Thank you, Sir. I have one clarification. I think most Singaporeans are following the Government's advice very closely. However, there may be a small group of Singaporeans who disregard the Stay-Home Notice. Instead of staying home, what we learn from some of the chat groups, is that those who returned went out clubbing. So, my question is, how do we deal with those who fail to comply with the Stay-Home Notice.

Thank you. This is a very important question and it is an issue that we are addressing and that we are paying a lot of attention to. For the enforcement of the Stay-Home Notice, we have help from the Home Team, so may I ask the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr K Shanmugam to respond.

Mr K Shanmugam.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the stay-at-home framework was first issued to persons who were returning from specified countries, countries that we thought were higher risk. But since then, of course, the COVID-19 situation across the world has grown considerably worse.

So, on 22 March, we announced that all short-term visitors will not be allowed to enter into Singapore or transit through Singapore. So, in other words, no more tourists. No short stays. Singapore residents and long-term pass holders, they will obviously come back and they will be placed under a Stay-Home Notice (SHN) from 23 March.

And it works this way: it means that Singaporeans will not be stranded overseas. They can come back. They can get access to our healthcare system. But those who are served with an SHN also have a responsibility. They should not put the wider community at risk.

A Stay-Home Notice means exactly that – they have to remain in their place of residence at all times during the 14-day period and that is a non-negotiable condition. Persons on SHN are required to monitor their health closely. They have to minimise contact with others, even at home. They have to avoid having visitors. They cannot leave the house and they have to seek immediate medical attention if feeling unwell.

This is because persons under SHN carry some risk of having the virus by virtue of their travel history or by virtue of their contact with others who may have had COVID-19.

To ensure compliance with SHN, we conduct enforcement checks. They include surveillance using SMS, web-based solutions, mobile applications; and people are expected to be at home and contactable, obviously. Those who do not respond to the messages will be called and there are also house visits, unannounced, by enforcement officers.

There are serious consequences for non-compliance. You have section 21(a) of the Infectious Diseases Act (IDA). If you breach the SHN, that could expose others to risk of infection, a first-time offender could face a jail term of up to six months, a fine of $10,000, of both. For repeat offenders, they face a jail term of up to 12 months, a fine of $20,000, or both.

MOH will be setting out new regulations under the IDA, specifically focusing on penalties for SHN breaches. The jail term could be up to six months, a $10,000 fine, or both. If you are not a Singapore Citizen, but you are a Permanent Resident, a long-term visit pass holder, a dependent pass holder, a student pass holder, where appropriate, we will not hesitate to revoke these passes, shorten their validity and also bar re-entry into Singapore. So, the passes could be cancelled if you are short-term visitors and you could be asked to leave Singapore immediately and barred from re-entry forever.