The Ministry of Health (MOH) is re-activating the Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs) to focus the primary care efforts to better detect and manage Covid-19 infections. These clinics would provide subsidised consultations and treatment for patients with respiratory illnesses.
This was announced by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, Co-Chairs of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce, together with Ministry of Health Medical Services Director Kenneth Mak this evening at the National Press Centre.
Mr Gan stated that the MOH has observed that many of the local confirmed cases had continued to circulate in the community or gone to work when they were already ill.
Based on the Covid-19 cases in Singapore, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) has observed that a significant number of them had mild symptoms in the initial phase of infection.
Similar to influenza, the patients typically experience mild flu-like symptoms such as fever and cough. And like the flu, they can be infectious during the initial period of mild symptoms.
With appropriate measures however, their risk of infecting others can be reduced.
Singapore currently has about 900 general practitioner (GP) clinics designated as PHPCs. Previously activated to deal with the haze and H1N1 Influenza pandemic, they provide subsidised treatment, investigations and medications during outbreaks.
“There an increasing number of cases in the community… So we are now going down to the primary care to detect these cases earlier,” said Mr Gan.
These clinics would be progressively activated from 18 February 2020. Patients diagnosed with respiratory illnesses, like the common cold for example, will enjoy the following subsidies at polyclinics and PHPCs:
There has been a total of 67 confirmed cases so far in Singapore. Mr Gan noted that all reported infections are traceable back to the previous infection clusters, and that there is still no evidence of community spread.
To date, six patients have been discharged, while another 6 patients are still in critical condition.
Mr Wong stated that according to world medical experts and local researchers, the coronavirus shows more similarity to influenza and H1N1, rather than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that took 700 over lives back in 2003.
In terms of transmission, the Covid-19 virus is highly transmissible just like the two illnesses, and that mortality rate is also not as high SARS. He also stated that 80 per cent of cases show mild symptoms and that the patients do recover on their own in due course.
