Remarks by PM Lee Hsien Loong on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation in Singapore
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
12 March 2020文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
My fellow Singaporeans, good evening.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
Five weeks ago, I spoke to you on our COVID-19 situation.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
Much has happened since then. So it is timely to update you again, and share with you what we can expect down the road. I will speak about three aspects of the issue: medical, economic and psychological.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
On the medical front, we continue to see new cases in Singapore. Most either have travelled overseas, or can be traced to imported cases. Each time we have been able to isolate them, do contact tracing, and quarantine the close contacts. So our numbers have not blown up. But neither have we been able to eradicate the virus, despite our best efforts.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/8965.html
At the same time, around us, the number of cases is rising rapidly. China’s situation is stabilising, but new cases are emerging all over the world – in Europe, America, and the Middle East. Globally, the number of cases is doubling every 5 to 7 days. Hence today, the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic.
What does this mean? It means that WHO assesses that many countries will see full-blown outbreaks, with sustained community transmission, like what has happened in South Korea and Italy. And unlike SARS, this outbreak will continue for some time – a year, and maybe longer.
The WHO named one key reason for the rapid spread that many countries had not taken the situation seriously enough – what the WHO called “alarming levels of inaction”. Here in Singapore, we have all along taken COVID-19 with the utmost seriousness. In fact, the WHO praised our efforts and held Singapore up as an example to emulate.
But we too face a serious situation. We expect more imported cases, and therefore new clusters and new waves of infection, this time coming from many countries rather than one or two. We have already imposed some travel restrictions, for example, from China, Iran, South Korea, Italy. We will have to tighten up further temporarily, though we cannot completely shut ourselves off from the world.
What else must we do? First, because COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, there are baseline things that we must get used to, like practising good personal hygiene, adopting new social norms and discouraging large gatherings, and generally, maintaining some physical distance from one another. That’s why we already scaled down community activities, especially for the seniors.
And we can do more in other areas. For example, at religious gatherings. In South Korea, the cases spread through the Shincheonji church group. In Singapore, two of our big clusters happened in church groups. And several Singaporeans who attended a big international religious gathering, a tabligh gathering, in Kuala Lumpur recently, have caught the virus. The issue is of course not religion itself, but that the virus can spread quickly to many people in crowded settings, like religious gatherings and services. That’s why Saudi Arabia temporarily stopped umrah pilgrimages; and the Pope live-streamed his sermons to avoid crowds on Saint Peter’s Square. I hope Singaporeans understand that during this period, we may need to shorten religious services, or reduce our attendance at such gatherings. Please work with your religious leaders to make these practical adjustments.
Second, we need to plan for a possible spike in COVID-19 cases. With very large numbers, if it happens, we will not be able to hospitalise and isolate every case like we do now. But we now know that the majority of patients, in fact, 80% of them, only experience mild symptoms. And the ones who are most at risk are the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure or lung problems. So, with larger numbers, the sensible thing will be to hospitalise only the more serious cases and encourage those with mild symptoms to see their family GP and rest at home – isolate themselves. This way, we focus resources on the seriously ill, speed up our response time, and hopefully, minimise the number of fatalities.
In the meantime, we are freeing up ICU and hospital beds and facilities, to create additional capacity to meet any surge in COVID-19 numbers. But rest assured, any Singaporean who needs urgent medical care, whether for COVID-19 or other illnesses, will be taken care of.
Besides medical plans, if there is a spike, we will also need additional social distancing measures. These will be temporary like suspending school, staggering work hours, or compulsory telecommuting. They will be extra “brakes”, to be implemented when we see a spike in cases. The extra brakes will slow down transmission of the virus, prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed, and help bring the numbers back down. After the situation improves, we can ease off and go back to the baseline precautions.
But let me emphasise this: the situation in Singapore remains under control. We are not going to DORSCON Red. We are not locking down our city like the Chinese, the South Koreans or Italians have done. What we are doing now is to plan ahead for some of these more stringent measures, try them out, and prepare Singaporeans for when we actually need to implement them.
As we consider these next steps, one major concern we have is the impact on our economy.
Our economy is taking a big hit. That’s why we did the $4bn Support and Stabilisation Package in the Budget last month to help businesses, workers and households tide over the immediate period. This has helped. But with things still unfolding, we knew we might have to do more. The situation is especially serious for some sectors – hotels, aviation, hospitality, and freelancers in the gig economy. But nobody has been spared. Everyone feels the impact, to different degrees.
So the Government is working on a second package of measures. We will help our companies with their costs and cash-flow, to keep them afloat through the storm. We will help our workers keep their jobs, and retrain during their downtime, so that when things return to normal, our workers will be the first out of the gate, and immediately productive. And we will give those who are retrenched and unemployed, as well as their families, an extra helping hand to see through this difficult period.
I am sharing these plans with you to reassure you that we are on top of things and thinking ahead. We anticipated the medical and economic consequences. I am confident that we can deal with them.
But what is also critical is the psychological aspect of this fight. Our frontline staff are working extremely hard to keep Singapore going – healthcare workers, immigration officers, civil servants, public transport workers, taxi drivers, cleaning staff. Singaporeans are cheering them on. The Government, for its part, has been open and transparent with our plans. When we made direct appeals to Singaporeans, for example, only wear face masks when unwell; or don’t worry about our supermarkets running out of food or household items, people accepted our reassurances, and changed their behaviour. I am grateful that most Singaporeans are responding calmly and responsibly. Thank you for your trust and support.
Singapore’s response has received international accolades. Underlying this is the social and psychological resilience of our people. What makes Singapore different from other countries is that we have confidence in each other, we feel that we are all in this together, and we don’t leave anyone behind. This is SG United. We are SG United.
We will remain in this high-risk state, nevertheless, for some time to come. But if we keep up our guard and take practical precautions to protect ourselves and our families, we will be able to keep our economy going and carry on with our daily lives. In such a crisis, everyone has a part to play. I hope you will work with me and my colleagues to keep our families safe, keep Singapore secure, and move forward together.
Thank you.
李显龙总理针对新加坡2019冠状病毒疫情发表的电视讲话
2020年3月12日
各位同胞, 大家晚上好！
这是我第二次针对新加坡的2019冠状病毒疫情发表电视讲话。
我国是在二月初把警戒级别调高到橙色，接着也陆续实行一系列的防疫措施。同时，疫情也在其他国家暴发，各地的病例不断迅速上升，世界卫生组织也刚宣布疫情为“大流行”。
疫情变“大流行”对新加坡意味着什么？
第一，我们所推出的一些措施必须是可以持续的，例如经常洗手、保持新加坡清洁，这些不应该只是发生疫情才做的，而是要成为我们生活中的一部分。第二，减少社交接触的措施还会继续，如果需要参加活动也必须保持适当的社交距离。这或许会带来一些不便，不过这需要大家的全力配合。一直以来我们的对策是及时发现、及时治疗，把病毒传播的范围降到最小。可是病毒正在全球各地迅速蔓延，我国预计会出现更多从外国输入的病例，本地也面对大规模感染群出现的风险。这将是一个新的局面，我们必须保持警惕，做好心理准备。
在这期间，我们一定要保持镇定，所有人都要和政府合作，这样我们采取的防疫措施才能够保护大家的安全。
这些日子以来，疫情已对我国经济造成影响。政府一直与企业和工友保持密切的联系。不少人都受到了疫情的打击，特别是中小型企业以及自由业者面对更为严峻的挑战。政府会尽全力，提供有效和及时的帮助。二月宣布的预算案，我们已经推出了多项辅助措施，不过政府也明白疫情持续恶化，因此，我们已经在筹备下一阶段的经济支援配套。
这次的疫情，考验了我们社会的坚韧性和凝聚力。守在前线的人士，例如医护人员，追踪接触者的小组等，都在辛勤的工作。我很欣慰，大家也从多方面支持和关怀（他们），为他们加油，打气，这给了他们力量，坚持下去。许多国人也发挥甘榜精神，互助互爱，像为隔离者送上爱心餐，或是为医护人员提供免费饮料，这些善举无形中让我们更加团结，齐心抵抗疫情。
这次的疫情，也考验了我们的判断能力。在信息爆炸的时代，我们在获取最新消息时，要会分辨什么是真，什么是假。社交媒体和网络上有许多关于疫情的讯息，有的可以参考，有的却是无稽之谈，有的是在其他地方发生的事情，但是这些事情不一定都会在这里发生。即使是新加坡也出现类似的情况，结果也不一定是一样的，因为每一个国家的情形都不尽相同。
总的来说，这疫情还会持续一段时间。我们必须做好长期的准备，同病毒对抗，并确保我国的经济和国人的生活降到尽可能获得保障。
新加坡要顺利走出这次的困境，继续向前，就需要我们每一个人负起社会责任，共同防止病毒的传播。
但更重要的是，经过这次的考验后，我希望我们的社会更加团结，大家更懂得关心彼此、互相扶持、各尽所能，一同守护我们的美好家园。
谢谢！
