Coronavirus: Singapore doing it right with measures, says expert who led WHO's fight against Sars
Published
3 hours ago
Salma Khalik
Senior Health Correspondent
SINGAPORE - Singapore is doing what is needed to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak, said an infectious diseases expert who headed the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global response to Sars in 2003.
Professor David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said this may make things inconvenient for people, but "you have to put precautionary measures in until you understand what the potential of this outbreak is".
"So every precautionary measure based on national assessment should be followed," he added.
Prof Heymann currently chairs the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards, which provides independent advice to WHO on potential threats to global health security.
He said Singapore "is not overdoing it" with the measures it has introduced.
Singapore
moved to code orange on Friday (Feb 7) and new measures include cancelling large-scale events if possible. Earlier measures include not allowing non-residents who had been in Hubei in the past fortnight, or people holding passports issued in Hubei, from entering.
In a telephone interview from London with The Straits Times, he said: "Singapore has been identifying cases, isolating them, done contact tracing, everything that's necessary to do to stop the outbreak."
But he added: "It's very difficult when before the disease is known, it's already out in the community. Some of the people coming in to China were exposed."
Singapore is now the country with the most number of coronavirus patients outside of China. This excludes
the cruise ship docked in Japan which is classified as an international conveyance.
Prof Heymann said the high number is probably due to "multiple introductions" given the high number of visitors from China.
A major problem is that too much is unknown about the disease, which surfaced only at the end of last year.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...utm_medium=share&utm_term=2020-02-08 20:02:05