Opening Remarks by Minister Ong Ye Kung at COVID 19 Multi Ministry Taskforce Doorstep Interview

20 OCT 2021

This opening remark was first published by the Ministry of Health, Singapore on October 20, 2021.

Supporting Our Hospitals

MOH is doing whatever we can to support and bolster the hospitals.

  • If need be, we will open up more ICU beds, the next leap would be to 300 beds, but that will be at the expense of further degradation of normal service and normal medical care.

  • We are beefing up manpower, through redeployment, using former swabbers as patient care and healthcare assistants, tapping on the help of the SG Healthcare Corps, where 2,000 people have signed up and about 800 are ready for deployment.

  • Our hospitals and healthcare workers will need the help from the rest of Singapore, to keep caseloads steady, and not overwhelm the system, so that we can continue to do our best to give proper medical care to all patients, COVID-19 and non-COVID.

Link to full opening remarks: https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/opening-remarks-by-mr-ong-ye-kung-minister-for-health-at-covid-19-multi-ministry-taskforce-doorstop-interview-on-20-october-2021