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Singapore appointed 2 idiots to lead the task force.
- Thread starter LaoTze
- Start date
Lawrence has plans to uplift our community. 
Sustainability, equality and supporting the vulnerable groups — Dhanraj, an undergraduate, shared some of the concerns faced by our youth and new graduates entering the workforce.
How about you, what are your thoughts and perspectives? Let me know in the comments below
In the upcoming #SGBudget2022, I will share more on our plans to uplift our community, and
to ensure everyone has access and opportunities to fulfill their potential.
Lawrence Wong
15 January at 10:37 ·Sustainability, equality and supporting the vulnerable groups — Dhanraj, an undergraduate, shared some of the concerns faced by our youth and new graduates entering the workforce.
How about you, what are your thoughts and perspectives? Let me know in the comments below
In the upcoming #SGBudget2022, I will share more on our plans to uplift our community, and
to ensure everyone has access and opportunities to fulfill their potential.
Lawrence is picking up his free mask soon. 
From now till 23 Jan, you can collect one of these antimicrobial masks which comes with a N95 filtration middle layer, from any of the #staymasked vending machines islandwide.
For Our Limbang residents - you can collect from Limbang or Stagmont RCs or find the vending machines located nearest to you here: https://mask.stayprepared.sg/locate-vending-machines
I look forward to picking up mine soon!
Lawrence Wong
Yesterday at 18:56 · Instagram ·From now till 23 Jan, you can collect one of these antimicrobial masks which comes with a N95 filtration middle layer, from any of the #staymasked vending machines islandwide.
For Our Limbang residents - you can collect from Limbang or Stagmont RCs or find the vending machines located nearest to you here: https://mask.stayprepared.sg/locate-vending-machines
I look forward to picking up mine soon!
Lawrence engages with union leaders. 
#EveryWorkerMatters. The past 2 years have not been easy for many of our workers. Thanks to our strong tripartite partnership between unions, employers and the Government, we are pressing ahead with our recovery.
My engagement with our union leaders yesterday was lively and constructive. We discussed many topics, including jobs, cost of living and priorities for our future.
How can we further invest in our workers? How can we make bigger moves to go green? How can we strengthen our social compact? It means that Government spending will have to go up, and revenue is needed to turn our priorities into reality.
Thanks NTUC Singapore and unions for your hard work. We continue to champion and support our workers, and create more good jobs for our workforce. More will be announced in my #SGBudget2022 speech on 18 Feb.
Lawrence Wong
5 hrs ·#EveryWorkerMatters. The past 2 years have not been easy for many of our workers. Thanks to our strong tripartite partnership between unions, employers and the Government, we are pressing ahead with our recovery.
My engagement with our union leaders yesterday was lively and constructive. We discussed many topics, including jobs, cost of living and priorities for our future.
How can we further invest in our workers? How can we make bigger moves to go green? How can we strengthen our social compact? It means that Government spending will have to go up, and revenue is needed to turn our priorities into reality.
Thanks NTUC Singapore and unions for your hard work. We continue to champion and support our workers, and create more good jobs for our workforce. More will be announced in my #SGBudget2022 speech on 18 Feb.
Lawrence wishes all devotees and friends good health and blessed Thaipusam.
Devotees came together to prepare milk pots for offerings at yesterday's Thaipusam celebration. Thaipusam is a festival of thanksgiving and the milk offering symbolises cleansing of the mind and soul.
This year, with the easing of restrictions, more devotees are allowed to worship, in groups of 5. It is still quite different from the way of celebrating that we used to have, but I thank everyone for making the adjustments. I wish all devotees and friends good health and blessed Thaipusam
(
: MCI - Liu Ying)
Lawrence Wong
13 hrs ·Devotees came together to prepare milk pots for offerings at yesterday's Thaipusam celebration. Thaipusam is a festival of thanksgiving and the milk offering symbolises cleansing of the mind and soul.
This year, with the easing of restrictions, more devotees are allowed to worship, in groups of 5. It is still quite different from the way of celebrating that we used to have, but I thank everyone for making the adjustments. I wish all devotees and friends good health and blessed Thaipusam
(
Lawrence hopes you will have quality time with your family and loved ones.
We are less than two weeks to Chinese New Year. I hope everyone will be able to enjoy some quality time with your family and loved ones, while keeping safety and social distancing in mind.
大家虎
年快乐，身体健康，事事顺利。
(
: Gardens by the Bay)
Lawrence Wong
6 hrs ·We are less than two weeks to Chinese New Year. I hope everyone will be able to enjoy some quality time with your family and loved ones, while keeping safety and social distancing in mind.
(
Lawrence provides an update.
The Omicron wave has started in Singapore. As this variant is much more transmissible than Delta, we expect to see infected cases rising more sharply in the coming days. Chinese New Year is around the corner — it is important that we continue to protect our seniors, and safeguard our healthcare capacity and essential services.
We continue to focus on those who need hospital care or ICU so that this wave does not overly burden our healthcare system. At the MTF press conference today, we shared our plans to focus our resources and refine our healthcare protocols to deal with this challenge.
We are prepared. Our strategy remains —
Practise safe management measures
Vaccinations, including boosters
Regular Covid-19 testing
Let’s all do our part to ride through this wave. We can do it together.
Lawrence Wong
2 hrs ·The Omicron wave has started in Singapore. As this variant is much more transmissible than Delta, we expect to see infected cases rising more sharply in the coming days. Chinese New Year is around the corner — it is important that we continue to protect our seniors, and safeguard our healthcare capacity and essential services.
We continue to focus on those who need hospital care or ICU so that this wave does not overly burden our healthcare system. At the MTF press conference today, we shared our plans to focus our resources and refine our healthcare protocols to deal with this challenge.
We are prepared. Our strategy remains —
Let’s all do our part to ride through this wave. We can do it together.
from straitstimes.com:
SINGAPORE - A gradual realisation that too much confidence had been placed in the ability of vaccines to bring down infection numbers was one factor in Singapore's switch in approach from "zero-Covid" to "living with Covid-19".
At one low point last year amid this change of plans, the Government was also presented with a stark choice: Accept an uptick in infections as the country moved towards a situation in which the virus was endemic, or re-introduce restrictions to try to avoid a potential situation in which a number of elderly people would be hospitalised and dying of the virus.
The latter route was chosen - to "a collective national groan" - but Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the country's multi-ministry task force on Covid-19, believes it was the right call.
His and other insights into the Government's handling of the pandemic are in a new book chronicling Singapore's experience with the pandemic. In This Together: Singapore's Covid-19 Story went on sale on Thursday (Jan 20).
Interviews with Mr Wong and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, also a co-chair of the task force, reveal how discussions on accepting and planning for Covid-19 as endemic started as early as in 2020.
The idea was raised with the public by Mr Wong only on May 28 last year. In that same month, Mr Ong discussed the matter at a closed-door seminar with clinicians and doctors. Their positive response prompted Mr Wong, Mr Ong and the third co-chair, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, to jointly write an op-ed to "signal a change in strategy".
Published in The Straits Times on June 24, it outlined a "new normal" of living with Covid-19 involving self-testing, home recovery and resumption of travel.
But a raging Delta variant had other ideas. About a fortnight after the op-ed, large infection clusters saw Singapore retreat to the tighter curbs it had loosened only in June, with eating out banned again and gathering sizes capped at two.
Mr Wong acknowledges in the book that many Singaporeans were "understandably" frustrated.
But the decision was not taken lightly. A major consideration was the vaccination rate of just 50 per cent at the time, with a significant proportion of seniors - about 200,000 - not inoculated. Many of these older people frequented hawker centres and wet markets where infections had spread from a cluster at Jurong Fishery Port.
"The concern was, look, if you just ride it through, you will end up potentially with more seniors in hospital and quite a number of them succumbing to the illness," said Mr Wong.
Asked if the authorities had "jumped the gun" with their earlier messaging on living with Covid-19 and raising hopes that the worst was over, Mr Wong acknowledged that they had counted on high vaccination rates to bring case numbers down and help Singaporeans "start to live more normal lives".
But this view shifted as more evidence pointed to breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, along with documented waning vaccine immunity. The task force realised expectations of vaccines had been too high, the book's writers said, noting "the harsh reality was that even if everyone were vaccinated, case numbers would rise as long as society continued to open up".
Recognising this meant accepting periodic controls to stop large surges of cases from leading to more hospitalisations and deaths, which could overwhelm the healthcare system, said Mr Wong. "That is why we realised we have to be very controlled in our reopening. We have to continue with some sensible measures."
Over the next few months, public discontent snowballed as tens of thousands caught Covid-19 and a home recovery scheme ran into serious logistical hiccups. Much angst was levelled at the task force, with some demanding to know why the authorities seemed to be falling back on strict measures, thereby abandoning the endemic scenario they had laid out.
It was left to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to step in to "steady the ship", according to the book.
In a speech in October, he reassured Singaporeans that the strategy remained to live with Covid-19, and predicted a runway of up to six months to reach a "new normal". This was a state where infection numbers would remain stable at perhaps hundreds a day, hospitals would go back to business as usual, some curbs would be eased, and people could resume activities while feeling comfortable in crowds.
Since then, headway has been made with the launch of several quarantine-free vaccinated travel lanes and relaxed social limits. But the Omicron variant now poses more uncertainty for the future - a future in which Disease X lurks, an as-yet-unknown virus that could be even deadlier.
In an interview for the book, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, a medical doctor, noted that in the last 20 years, there have been five major epidemics or pandemics - Sars, H1N1, Ebola, Mers and now Covid-19.
The next one is a question of not if but when, he said. "This is a wake-up call for us to improve, to tighten and to constantly pivot to make sure (that) contingency plans are in place."
Navigating the bumps in Singapore's road to living with Covid-19
SINGAPORE - A gradual realisation that too much confidence had been placed in the ability of vaccines to bring down infection numbers was one factor in Singapore's switch in approach from "zero-Covid" to "living with Covid-19".
At one low point last year amid this change of plans, the Government was also presented with a stark choice: Accept an uptick in infections as the country moved towards a situation in which the virus was endemic, or re-introduce restrictions to try to avoid a potential situation in which a number of elderly people would be hospitalised and dying of the virus.
The latter route was chosen - to "a collective national groan" - but Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the country's multi-ministry task force on Covid-19, believes it was the right call.
His and other insights into the Government's handling of the pandemic are in a new book chronicling Singapore's experience with the pandemic. In This Together: Singapore's Covid-19 Story went on sale on Thursday (Jan 20).
Interviews with Mr Wong and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, also a co-chair of the task force, reveal how discussions on accepting and planning for Covid-19 as endemic started as early as in 2020.
The idea was raised with the public by Mr Wong only on May 28 last year. In that same month, Mr Ong discussed the matter at a closed-door seminar with clinicians and doctors. Their positive response prompted Mr Wong, Mr Ong and the third co-chair, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, to jointly write an op-ed to "signal a change in strategy".
Published in The Straits Times on June 24, it outlined a "new normal" of living with Covid-19 involving self-testing, home recovery and resumption of travel.
But a raging Delta variant had other ideas. About a fortnight after the op-ed, large infection clusters saw Singapore retreat to the tighter curbs it had loosened only in June, with eating out banned again and gathering sizes capped at two.
Mr Wong acknowledges in the book that many Singaporeans were "understandably" frustrated.
But the decision was not taken lightly. A major consideration was the vaccination rate of just 50 per cent at the time, with a significant proportion of seniors - about 200,000 - not inoculated. Many of these older people frequented hawker centres and wet markets where infections had spread from a cluster at Jurong Fishery Port.
"The concern was, look, if you just ride it through, you will end up potentially with more seniors in hospital and quite a number of them succumbing to the illness," said Mr Wong.
Asked if the authorities had "jumped the gun" with their earlier messaging on living with Covid-19 and raising hopes that the worst was over, Mr Wong acknowledged that they had counted on high vaccination rates to bring case numbers down and help Singaporeans "start to live more normal lives".
But this view shifted as more evidence pointed to breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, along with documented waning vaccine immunity. The task force realised expectations of vaccines had been too high, the book's writers said, noting "the harsh reality was that even if everyone were vaccinated, case numbers would rise as long as society continued to open up".
Recognising this meant accepting periodic controls to stop large surges of cases from leading to more hospitalisations and deaths, which could overwhelm the healthcare system, said Mr Wong. "That is why we realised we have to be very controlled in our reopening. We have to continue with some sensible measures."
Over the next few months, public discontent snowballed as tens of thousands caught Covid-19 and a home recovery scheme ran into serious logistical hiccups. Much angst was levelled at the task force, with some demanding to know why the authorities seemed to be falling back on strict measures, thereby abandoning the endemic scenario they had laid out.
It was left to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to step in to "steady the ship", according to the book.
In a speech in October, he reassured Singaporeans that the strategy remained to live with Covid-19, and predicted a runway of up to six months to reach a "new normal". This was a state where infection numbers would remain stable at perhaps hundreds a day, hospitals would go back to business as usual, some curbs would be eased, and people could resume activities while feeling comfortable in crowds.
Since then, headway has been made with the launch of several quarantine-free vaccinated travel lanes and relaxed social limits. But the Omicron variant now poses more uncertainty for the future - a future in which Disease X lurks, an as-yet-unknown virus that could be even deadlier.
In an interview for the book, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, a medical doctor, noted that in the last 20 years, there have been five major epidemics or pandemics - Sars, H1N1, Ebola, Mers and now Covid-19.
The next one is a question of not if but when, he said. "This is a wake-up call for us to improve, to tighten and to constantly pivot to make sure (that) contingency plans are in place."
Lawrence extends CNY greetings to residents.
Great to have the @myt_grc team together for a meal today and to extend CNY greetings to our residents, hawkers and shop operators in Marsiling Mall!
Lawrence Wong
1 hr · Instagram ·Great to have the @myt_grc team together for a meal today and to extend CNY greetings to our residents, hawkers and shop operators in Marsiling Mall!
Lawrence extends CNY greetings to residents.
Lawrence Wong
1 hr · Instagram ·
Great to have the @myt_grc team together for a meal today and to extend CNY greetings to our residents, hawkers and shop operators in Marsiling Mall!
View attachment 132121
he think he wong fei hung is it?
Lawrence welcomes further views on the upcoming Budget.
It has been a challenging two years for our businesses. We thank you for your continued partnership with the Government and Trade Associations and Chambers, to tackle the pandemic and steer our economy through its worst recession since independence.
The outlook has improved, and our economy is steadily recovering. But there are still some segments facing challenges. We also have to prepare for a future of greater uncertainty, volatility and disruption.
So for #SGBudget2022, we will see how we can better support our businesses and workers - by investing in new capabilities, and going strong in new growth areas, like the green economy.
My team and I will continue to study your feedback, and I welcome further views ahead of the Budget on 18 Feb.
(Photos during the discussion with Trade Associations and Chambers at the Singapore Business Federation)
Lawrence Wong
56 mins ·It has been a challenging two years for our businesses. We thank you for your continued partnership with the Government and Trade Associations and Chambers, to tackle the pandemic and steer our economy through its worst recession since independence.
The outlook has improved, and our economy is steadily recovering. But there are still some segments facing challenges. We also have to prepare for a future of greater uncertainty, volatility and disruption.
So for #SGBudget2022, we will see how we can better support our businesses and workers - by investing in new capabilities, and going strong in new growth areas, like the green economy.
My team and I will continue to study your feedback, and I welcome further views ahead of the Budget on 18 Feb.
(Photos during the discussion with Trade Associations and Chambers at the Singapore Business Federation)
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