While Singapore cannot rule out completely the possibility of locking down the city-state, there will not be a need for that if it carries out its Covid-19 containment measures effectively, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said.

Does not rule any measures out, but not planning for it

In response to a question from the media at a press conference held on Tuesday, March 17, Wong said the country needs to consider "a whole range of measures and not rule anything out".

However, for "something as stringent" as a lockdown, the government is not planning for it, he said.

No need for a lockdown if Singapore continues existing measures

He added that a lockdown is "a very extreme measure", and said the government does not think Singapore will need to get there if it has been carrying on with the measures it has implemented so far.

Should the country keep at such measures, he says, "then we will never need to get there."

The measures, which he described as "multiple lines of defence", include border controls, social tracing, and social distancing.

He added that should these three levels of measures be executed well, the government will be able to "tighten up" the measures by doing it "more", and doing it "faster".

S'pore government aims to avoid a "lockdown" situation through "major circuit breaker" measures

Then the country need not get to "a situation where we have to do an entire lockdown of the city", Wong said, adding that that is what the government is aiming for.

He gave further details on the additional measures that Singapore could potentially do for "a major circuit breaker that doesn't entail a lockdown".

Examples of these include school and workplace closures on a temporary basis, such as over "a period of two to three weeks, just like the Malaysians have done".

He reiterated that these measures do not mean "an entire lockdown", adding that the government has highlighted that as a possibility previously.

In addition, Wong said the government constantly monitors "the environment and the risk situation", and will adjust their measures accordingly.

He emphasised that Singapore has to take its measures "seriously", and "do them well".

"If we are vigilant, we implement our measures effectively, we do not have to lock down our city, and we don't want to lock down our city."

Wong had earlier urged Singaporeans not to travel for the time being as well, so as to help reduce the number of imported cases to Singapore.

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