BEIJING: China launched mass health screenings in Xinjiang on Saturday (Jul 18) after a spike in coronavirus cases raised fears of a fresh outbreak in the far western province.
The new cases illustrate the continuing difficulty China faces in stamping out the contagion, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year before spreading around the world.
The new testing regime comes a day after authorities curtailed most flights into regional capital Urumqi and shut down local subway and public transport services.
The city had recorded 17 new coronavirus infections as of Saturday, authorities said in a briefing.
Mass screening for the virus will begin in buildings which had reported new cases and eventually cover all of Urumqi, said local health commission chief Zhang Wei.
"The whole city has entered a 'wartime state', and will suspend all kinds of group activities," an official said at the briefing, according to state media reports.
Urumqi residents were also urged not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary.
Strict lockdowns across the country and widespread COVID-19 testing largely brought the outbreak under control within Chinese borders earlier this year.
But a new cluster emerged in Beijing in June and infecting more than 330 people before it was contained, after millions of people living in the capital were tested for transmission.
Xinjiang was one of the first regions to let students return to school in late March after authorities declared an end to the initial wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims make up around half of the remote and landlocked region's population.
Many of them complain of decades of political and religious oppression by China's ruling Communist Party, which the government denies.
SINGAPORE - Veteran diplomat Mr Tony Kemal Siddique died on Friday night (July 17) of a heart attack.
He was 80, and was most recently Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community.
Mr Siddique leaves behind his wife Sharon, their daughters Sophia and Samira, and two grand-daughters, Misha and Roxy.
He previously served as Special Envoy for Arctic Affairs, and was Singapore's ambassador to a host of European countries, including Finland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Greece.
After retiring from the civil service in 1996, he went into the private sector and founded a strategic advisory firm, where he was executive director.
Mr Bilahari Kausikan, chairman of the Middle East Institute, remembers Mr Siddique as a "legendary foreign service officer" and an "operator par excellence", from whom a generation of diplomats learnt their craft.
Former president S R Nathan - who was then permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs - would appoint Mr Siddique when he "needed the impossible done", said Mr Kausikan.
For instance, Mr Siddique was key for raising the Cambodia vote at the United Nations in the critical first years of the 1980s after Vietnam's invasion, said Mr Kausikan, former permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2013.
"In the 2000s, he single-handedly got us observer status in the Arctic Council," he added. Singapore is the only small island observer state in the Arctic Council.
Many of Mr Siddique's colleagues remember him for his extraordinary talent at networking.
Veteran diplomat Verghese Matthews, who was Singapore's former Non-Resident High Commissioner to the Republic of Fiji, said: "Tony was a larger than life personality. Whenever he was present, he would invariably be the centre of attention and lead the conversation. He was undoubtedly the most successful networker I have met. He knew people in all the ministries in Singapore as well as foreign ministries of other countries"
Mr Siddique was also generous with younger diplomats, showing them the ropes of how to write political briefs and interact with their foreign counterparts, said Ambassador-at-large Ong Keng Yong.
Mr Ong shared that Mr Siddique taught him how to stay sharp amid the "flurry of activity" common at diplomatic conferences.
"He taught us how there will always be private chit-chat and deal making on the sidelines, and we must always stay alert to counter those moves," he said.
Mr Siddique was buried at the Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery on Saturday afternoon.
Singaporeans are unlikely to be able to travel for leisure this year, though essential business travel will be possible.
At a virtual press conference yesterday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said: "Our overall advisory, it remains for everyone in Singapore, is not to travel, to avoid all travel."
He added that even though the virus situation is dynamic and constantly changing, the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19 - which he co-chairs - does not see things improving any time soon.
"Looking at the situation, the Covid-19 infection around the world is unlikely to go away. At the end of the year, it will continue to be with us, even till next year.
"So, it is unlikely that we will see improvement in the situation in the near term, which means that our travel advisory position is unlikely to change in the near term as well," he said.
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However, negotiations with countries on reciprocal green lane arrangements will proceed to facilitate essential business travel, so long as the country Singapore is talking to has the appropriate control measures.
Green lanes "are not just free for all travel", reminded Mr Wong.
"A traveller coming in through a reciprocal green lane has to abide by and comply with certain control measures, including testing at the point of departure and point of arrival, and then following a very strict and controlled itinerary."
He added: "This will not apply to mass tourism travel... that, I think, will not happen any time soon."
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The task force will also continually review and update border control measures for travellers who are entering Singapore, he said.
In the light of the resurgence of cases in certain countries, travellers entering Singapore from Japan, Hong Kong and Australia's Victoria state from July 20 will have to serve their stay-home notice (SHN) at dedicated facilities instead of their own places of residence.
They will also have to undergo a Covid-19 test before the end of their SHN period.
Travellers who left Singapore from March 27, despite the prevailing travel advisory against leaving the country, are required to pay for their stay at dedicated SHN facilities. Travellers who are not Singapore citizens or permanent residents also have to pay for their stay at dedicated SHN facilities.
The Straits Times understands that the cost of each 14-day stay is about $2,000. The Covid-19 test for each person costs another $200.
Mr Wong said: "In some countries, you are seeing a resurgence - it has not been controlled at all and the cases are still accelerating. So, we really need to remain vigilant."
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Singaporeans are unlikely to be able to travel for leisure this year, though essential business travel will be possible.
At a virtual press conference yesterday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said: "Our overall advisory, it remains for everyone in Singapore, is not to travel, to avoid all travel."
He added that even though the virus situation is dynamic and constantly changing, the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19 - which he co-chairs - does not see things improving any time soon.
"Looking at the situation, the Covid-19 infection around the world is unlikely to go away. At the end of the year, it will continue to be with us, even till next year.
"So, it is unlikely that we will see improvement in the situation in the near term, which means that our travel advisory position is unlikely to change in the near term as well," he said.
Green lanes "are not just free for all travel", reminded Mr Wong.
"A traveller coming in through a reciprocal green lane has to abide by and comply with certain control measures, including testing at the point of departure and point of arrival, and then following a very strict and controlled itinerary."
He added: "This will not apply to mass tourism travel... that, I think, will not happen any time soon."
The task force will also continually review and update border control measures for travellers who are entering Singapore, he said.
In the light of the resurgence of cases in certain countries, travellers entering Singapore from Japan, Hong Kong and Australia's Victoria state from July 20 will have to serve their stay-home notice (SHN) at dedicated facilities instead of their own places of residence.
They will also have to undergo a Covid-19 test before the end of their SHN period.
Travellers who left Singapore from March 27, despite the prevailing travel advisory against leaving the country, are required to pay for their stay at dedicated SHN facilities. Travellers who are not Singapore citizens or permanent residents also have to pay for their stay at dedicated SHN facilities.
The Straits Times understands that the cost of each 14-day stay is about $2,000. The Covid-19 test for each person costs another $200.
Mr Wong said: "In some countries, you are seeing a resurgence - it has not been controlled at all and the cases are still accelerating. So, we really need to remain vigilant."
SINGAPORE — The raucous crowds that gathered at multiple locations across Singapore on Election Night may potentially have consequences for the number of COVID-19 infections in the country, admitted Lawrence Wong, co-chair of Singapore’s multi-ministry taskforce on the coronavirus, on Friday evening (17 July).
Wong, who is also National Development Minister, was asked during the virtual press conference whether the country could expect an uptick in the number of infections, given the disregard for safe distancing on the night of 10 July, when many gathered to celebrate the General Election results.
“There were these scenes of people coming together to celebrate. Ideally, they would have practised safe distancing. The people who were there, they know who they are. But I think the moment got the better of them, and they perhaps forgot about some of these requirements,” acknowledged the minister.
“From the pictures I've seen, all of them were wearing masks. They may not have kept to the rule of five. And if we can find out who they are, and we have a means to, we might be able to identify and take them to task. If you look at the numbers, there are quite a number of them, but if you look at the contact that they had, I'm not sure that they were in close contact for a very long time.”
Wong added there could be a consequence for the safe-distancing lapses by individuals.
“It comes down to the basic point: any time there are lapses, by any individuals, there will be a consequence, potentially,” he said. “And all of us just need to remember that... any time anyone decides to abandon caution, thinks that, ‘It's okay, I do not need to abide by the safe distancing measures’, they put themselves, and they put the whole country at risk.
“Unfortunately, this appears to have happened in that particular incident, and I would imagine it would not be the end of it. There will be many other incidents where lapses do occur.”
Supporters of the Workers' Party cheering at Hougang Avenue 5 in the early hours of 11 July 2020, hours after the GE2020 polls have ended. (PHOTO: Don Wong for Yahoo News Singapore)
No change in enforcement stance
The virtual briefing by the multi-ministry taskforce took place on the same day that the Ministry of Health (MOH) preliminarily reported 327 more COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 41,453.
Earlier in the briefing – which was chaired by Wong, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and director of medical services Kenneth Mak – the taskforce was asked whether it still believed it was safe to hold an election, in light of the large crowds that formed and the delays at polling stations that resulted in long queues and the extension of voting hours.
The decision to hold a GE amid the pandemic was labelled as opportunist and reckless by several opposition parties.
However, Wong believes that the Elections Department did its very best to conduct the GE in a safe manner.
“They have recognised publicly there were areas that can be improved and they have said that they are reviewing all of these areas,” he said. “But by and large, if you look at the actual conduct of polling, and all of us were around including members of the media, these are conducted in open spaces.
“The time spent, even if you were queuing up, it's not as though there was close contact in terms of touching and talking. People were spaced apart and then went in, (they did not) talk to anyone in a very prolonged manner, and then they cast their vote. And there were sanitisers provided, a whole range of different safety protocols were put in place.
“Whether or not anything happens after this, whether there will be any case emerging, we will not know now... Let's not jump to the conclusion, just because we see queues forming. Queues form everywhere, not just when people go and cast the votes.”
Enforcement not possible when people in ‘celebratory mood’
The taskforce was also asked whether there had been a change in enforcement policies, given that police officers on the ground on Election Night did not move in to disperse crowds. Wong said that there had been no shift in policy.
“No amount of enforcement can work if the whole country wants to go for a celebration,” he said. “How? What amount of enforcement will be effective if everyone is in a celebratory mood and want to go out and have a big party? It's not possible. So enforcement is important, measures are important, but individual responsibility is key.”
There have been multiple instances of individuals and organisations being fined, jailed and/or deported for failing to observe safe distancing measures, ever since Singapore’s partial lockdown began on 7 April, and also after it was progressively lifted.
In one of the most recent cases, a 30-year-old man was fined for flinging a packet of newly bought masks at an enforcement officer’s face, upon being confronted for not wearing a mask,
