National Development Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday rejected as "baseless and false" the charge made by opposition politician Paul Tambyah that decisions regarding the Covid-19 outbreak were made by the ministerial committee without consulting experts in the field.
The multi-ministry task force that he co-chairs has always relied on scientific evidence and the advice of medical experts, said Mr Wong.
He also took issue with the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chairman's suggestion that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had put out an advisory in February telling employers not to send their workers for testing, on threat of losing their employment privileges, and that the Ministry of Health (MOH) had been "blindsided".
Mr Wong said Professor Tambyah had "got his facts wrong" about the MOM advisory.
It was issued at the request of medical experts in the wake of the Seletar Aerospace Heights cluster, with employers trying to get doctors to certify their workers were free of Covid-19. Doctors felt that they were unable to issue such a memo as requested by employers and had turned to the MOH for help. The MOH then worked with MOM to put out the advisory in response.
"I fully respect Prof Tambyah as a leading expert in his field, but it is very disappointing that he has deliberately chosen to distort the facts just to try and score some political points," he said.
Last night, MOH's director of medical services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, said in response to media queries that MOH had assessed that a hospital would not be able to certify a person was free of Covid-19 infection based on a single negative test. It had then worked with MOM to engage employers.
Separately, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chief Tan Cheng Bock yesterday challenged Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing to a televised debate on the Covid-19 response alongside Prof Tambyah.
Mr Chan replied on Facebook that Dr Tan should spell out his plans now, so that voters can know how the PSP intends to help Singaporeans get through this serious health and economic crisis.
