Relative to other countries, Singapore did well in protecting lives and livelihoods through the Covid-19 crisis, says a review of the Government’s handling of the pandemic. But there were situations that could have been better handled. The White Paper on Singapore’s...
Port and land links were kept open for the flow of goods. Singapore also never imposed any export controls, to send a signal it could be relied on to remain a hub for business.The worst hit sectors during the pandemic included construction, retail and food services, and travel-reliant industries. The government introduced temporary relief measures including rental rebates, bridging loan programmes, and deferment of loan repayments.
After Singapore lifted the circuit breaker, home-based learning remained a feature of curriculum time. Safe management measures ensured national examinations could proceed and curriculums were adjusted. Private companies also made contributions, from housing recovered workers to lending expertise with cold chain management for vaccine storage. Within government, agencies not directly connected to the pandemic took on functions that were far from their normal missions for a whole-of-government approach.The Government did not move quickly enough to conduct early and better surveillance of dormitories, given their communal living conditions, or to detect and isolate infected individuals.
The public viewed this as a U-turn, which affected public trust. Instead, the Government could have been less definitive in its position on mask-wearing before it learnt how easily the virus spread, and encouraged people to devise their own face masksThe use of the TraceTogether as well as SafeEntry reduced contact tracing time from four days to 1½. But it took several months to get into gear, as TraceTogether at first did not cover people without smartphones.
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