National Development Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday rebutted "baseless and false" remarks by Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chairman Paul Tambyah that the multi-ministry Covid-19 task force did not rely on the advice of medical experts in its work.

Mr Wong, who co-chairs the task force with Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, said that it has always relied on scientific evidence and the advice of medical experts in coming up with decisions.

"They are an integral part of the team, we involve them in all our deliberations, and every time Minister Gan Kim Yong and I hold the press conferences, we have the director of medical services (Associate Professor Kenneth Mak) with us," he said, adding that this has been the case since the outbreak started.

Professor Tambyah had commented on the Government's handling of Covid-19 as a panellist at a National University of Singapore Society pre-general election forum last Friday.

Mr Wong also addressed Prof Tambyah's remarks on a Manpower Ministry (MOM) advisory that asked employers not to send workers who were healthy for testing.

He said the advisory was issued in February after an infection at Seletar Aerospace Park. Many employers subsequently asked their workers to go to accident and emergency departments in hospitals to get tested and certified Covid-19 negative so they could work.

"(Prof Tambyah) has got his facts wrong. It was not MOM that unilaterally issued the advisory. It was the doctors and medical experts who had requested MOM to put out that advisory to employers," said Mr Wong, in an interview with reporters at the People's Action Party's Woodgrove branch in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

He added that because doctors could not issue memos to employers to certify their workers Covid-19 negative, they asked the ministry to put out the advisory to clarify matters with employers.

"I fully respect (Prof) Tambyah as a leading expert in this field, but it is very disappointing that he has deliberately chosen to distort the facts just to try and score some political points," he added.

The minister said he was fully prepared for the SDP to do such a thing, but he had "expected better" of Prof Tambyah. "He claims the task force is distracted, but it seems that he's the one doing the politicking and undermining the work of everyone on the front line."

Singaporeans will ultimately "see and judge what we have done", said the minister, adding that the Government has been fully engaged in the fight against Covid-19 for the last six months.

He said infection rates have been kept low in the community, and major operations have been mounted in the foreign worker dormitories to test and clear all the workers.

"We are on track to completing this major task very soon... and importantly, we have kept our fatality rates in Singapore among the lowest in the world. These are the things we have focused on throughout this period."

Reiterating the points made by Mr Wong, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo told reporters that the Government's aim in issuing the advisory was mainly to protect Singaporeans.

She said the concern in February was the impact on Singaporeans seeking healthcare if many healthy foreign workers went to hospitals to get tested.

"So our considerations then were very clear," she said.

The opposition has "twisted the situation around", she added. "We never said that when you're sick, you can't come for tests."

When asked how much he is on the ground during the election campaign, Mr Wong replied that the work of the task force continues even during this period.

"So whatever spare time on top of that work, that's where I come in to the ground to meet my residents. That's the situation," he said.

"The work is important because we do not want to compromise at all the work that we have done and the requirement to keep Singaporeans safe."