Covid-19 multi-ministry task force

Presently, some 8,000 Covid-19 tests are performed daily in Singapore, but there are plans to increase this number to 40,000 the Covid-19 multi-ministry taskforce said.

“Many have been hoping that after the circuit breaker, they will be able to go out freely to meet their families and relatives and even dine together. Unfortunately, all of these activities will have to wait,” said Minister Lawrence Wong.

“We hope that if we [lift the circuit breaker] carefully and do it right, the number, even as it goes up, it will continue to go up slowly, and it will continue to remain under control,” said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.

“Our aim is to make sure that as far as possible, all migrant workers are free of infection before resuming work when the sectors gradually reopen,” said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong

Singapore has been lowering its Covid-19 testing capacity in the past few days due to an issue at a laboratory which resulted in 33 “false positive cases” on May 10.

“Let's also focus on doing everything we can to protect seniors because they are the most vulnerable group,” said Minister Lawrence Wong.

“We are not yet at single digits when it comes to local transmission. So, it is not time to lift the tighter measures in place, we still need to continue with them for at least a week, but we start making some adjustments” said Minister Lawrence Wong”

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong urged Singaporeans to remain vigilant, noting that "it only takes one case - one hidden case, one cryptic case - to cause new clusters to form”.

"Today's infection rate we are seeing may be lower than the actual infection rate, because as we said, there may be unlinked cases, hidden cases, very mild cases where people think it is just a normal cough or flu and they recover” Minister Lawrence Wong.

“We understand that the enhanced measures and circuit breaker extension will have a significant impact on our workers,” noted Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat