HONG KONG (The Straits Times/ANN): You'd have thought the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hong Kong should long have exceeded those in Singapore, and by far more.
After all, the city has 13 border crossings with mainland China, where the virus - officially named Covid-19 - is thought to have originated, and three remain open. Singapore, in contrast, is more than 3,500km away and has closed its borders to all new visitors from China since Feb 1.
Singapore may be detecting more cases because it gives citizens an incentive to come forward when they are unwell, SCMP cited Dr Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, as saying. Singapore may be detecting more cases because it gives citizens an incentive to come forward when they are unwell, SCMP cited Dr Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, as saying.
"We are looking very hard for cases, and the harder you look, the more cases you'll find. The upturn [in cases] will come down later because we are actively quarantining," Dr Leong said, adding that Singapore's neighbouring countries are likely to have many more cases but they aren't"looking hard enough".
Singapore's research institutes had even developed their own test kits and sent 10,000 of them to help virus-hit communities in Wuhan, he said.Dr Leong said Singaporeans also have a high level of trust in their government. Following the raising of the alert level, citizens flocked to supermarkets to hoard essential supplies, which then prompted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to make a national address on Saturday, stressing that the country was well-prepared to face the outbreak and had sufficient food supplies.
The national development ministry said about 370 people were at government quarantine facilities, well within its capacity of 1,000 people. There have also been protests against the use of certain housing estates as potential quarantine facilities. Private firms have stepped in to hand out free masks to the public, drawing crowds of people desperate to protect themselves.
Even now, there were deliverymen ferrying food supplies from mainland China to Hong Kong, Dr Yeung said, adding that this posed a"danger".
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