 It's a four o'clock show. It's Think Tech Hawaii. It's global report with Lily on. She joins us from Singapore. Hi, Lily. It's nice to see you smile and face. Hi, Jay. How are you? Lily has been a host a long time and she's been in Singapore doing hosting on a regular or rather irregular basis. But now we have her and she's able to give us a report on how coronavirus is doing in Singapore. And Singapore has been very clever about coronavirus as it is about so many other things and we wanted to find out how they did that in Singapore, how it's working now and how life is for Lily in Singapore. So Lily, how is life for you these days in Singapore? Are you all shut in? You know, it's excellent. There is no place I'd rather be in even when we were just second in on the table after China in terms of number of infected cases. I've never felt safer. The reason is because the government has been very proactively seeking out and isolated the sick right from the very beginning. Oh, okay. So what kind of proactive thing has the government done? We're very curious because we want to learn from Singapore. We always want to learn from Singapore. So I kind of used to say that. So we have a very extensive contact tracing team. Essentially what happens is when we get somebody that's tested positive, this person gets interviewed by the contact tracing team. So from that one person, we will try to find out who are his close contacts for the last 14 days. Anybody that's within two meters from him is considered his close contact or who has spent about 30 minutes with him. And from one person, we could find a list of 50 other contacts that they would in turn call them in for testing. Ah, okay. And this is a team. It's a bunch of people that go out and they meet with the individual in person and they talk to them and ask them questions and make notes, that sort of thing. Oh, no, they're not going out there. So it's primarily, you know, it's label intensive, it's phone work. So they will call them in and an interview over the phone and if they have symptoms interview in person. So every day we have, I think we make close to 4,000 calls a day. And this team consists of people from the hospitals and also from the police units. And let me explain that because we are largely compliant. When we get questioned by the government from Ministry of Health, we would give our information, you know, quite willingly, but then maybe some people who are less willing to disclose some personal information in which case it gets passed to the police. Then if they are not sharing the necessary information for the investigation, they can be charged with the Symbol Infectious Diseases Act. So one way or another, they're going to get information out of you. Is that a new act or has that been around for a while? No, the Infectious Disease Act has been around for a while. Essentially, if you're not cooperating in police in their attempt to gather information during investigation, they could charge you with that. And you go to jail? Yeah, the typical, if I'm not wrong, you can get fined up to $10,000 or six months jail or a combination of both. So it's pretty hefty. And this is just a matter of answering their questions and telling them who you've been close to over the past two weeks. And then they go from there and they talk to the individuals you mentioned. Yes, and it goes beyond just answering their questions. You also have to be truthful in answering their questions. So I'll give two examples. We had a couple that was not truthful in answering the questions and they were charged. So this was a couple of Chinese nationals. They were not upfront about their whereabouts and it was discovered by the government and they were charged with the Infectious Diseases Act. Hmm. I don't know why anybody would be untruthful. Maybe they want to preserve some privacy, but in the end, we're talking about endangering the community. Now there's no good reason for that. So that's interesting. So what about? Go ahead. Let me just add to that, Jay. Sorry. And it's not, it goes beyond asking them on a telephone who you've been with, because I don't know who I've been with for the last 14 days. I don't know everybody. I might not even know if it's a stranger. So what we have in Singapore is we have a lot of CCTVs, closer to television. So if I were to tell them that, okay, last Wednesday I was at this place called Raffles Suri. I was there for 30 minutes waiting for my friend who didn't show. But in that 30 minutes, there were other people within two meters of me. So what the police can do is they can do a playback of this video footage. And from there, they can start hunting down those people that were within two meters from me. That's one way. Another way is they could do contact tracing via digital signatures that's left behind by ATM withdrawals or by credit card payments. So those are the various ways that they can hunt down the contacts. Now they're not going to do this to everybody, just the people who test positive or is it everybody? Not everybody. So those who are on the contact list. So if you have been in close contact with somebody that has been tested positive, you're going to get called by the government. I will give an example of this lady who shared her experience. So she was at a barbeque. She got a call from an unknown number. And the guy on the other end asked her, you know, were you in a taxi last Wednesday at 6.47 p.m.? He was very precise and she looked at her taxi app. Indeed, she was in a taxi at that time. It was just a six minutes ride and she was told to go home and stay home. And the next day, there were people from the hospital in full jacket, surgical mask, and they made her sign an order. It essentially was a quarantine order. And if she were to flood the order, she would be charged with, you know, $10,000 or six month jail time. So they are very quick and very decisive and very swift in their actions. But this lady was showing no symptoms. She had been showing symptoms. She would have been brought in for testing. Yes. So, you know, in China now, in Wuhan, as I recall, there's an app you're required to download on your phone. And the app will, you know, of course, follow where you are. It will also, it will be able to tell my GPS if you are near somebody, say, you know, six feet or whatever it might be. And then they know by virtue of that app who you've been close with. You also have to sign in with them and you have to take your temperature twice a day. And I guess you show them your phone, you take a picture and you show them your phone with the photograph of the thermometer, something along those lines. Now, does Singapore have an app that you have to download? Yes, we have something similar. It's called a tracing app. We have not made it mandatory for everybody to just yet. And we have made that app free to the world. Any country can pick it up and use it. Essentially, anybody that's within two meters from you will be picked up, will be recorded as an encounter. So they can always go back to the app to find out. This is via Bluetooth technology. So we have something very similar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's going to get more and more popular because I don't think it's very efficient, very effective. So what about, what about things like masks? Are you required to wear a mask if you go out? Okay. So right from the, well, when we first, when rumors first started coming out that there was this mysterious virus going on in China, I think that was Anna last year. Our government sprang into action. They did not wait for the first case to be discovered. They sprang right into action. So when the first infected case that was around Wuhan was discovered in Singapore in January 23, on the 24th, there were this panic buying of masks in Singapore. And the government came out to give a message and said, we're going to distribute four masks for every household. But the message then was that if you are sick, wear a mask. If you are not sick, do not wear a mask. So there was a little bit of confusion, you know, if, if I'm not to wear a mask, that means I'm depending on those who are sick to wear a mask. Is that guaranteed? Then there was a following message that came out explaining why this is so. If everybody were to start donning a mask, we are going to deplete the supply for the frontline workers. Those are the ones that truly need a mask. And when that happens, when they start falling sick and start getting sick, our hospital system will collapse. So back then it was wear a mask only when you're sick and don't wear a mask when you're, when you're fine. Now it's different. Now the government is no longer discouraging the use of masks, but they have, they also have sort of a backup. What they are doing now is they're distributing reusable masks to every household. So now we make sure that the frontline workers have their surgical masks, have their 3M95, have their Chinese KNN95 and the people are also protected in some ways. What's a reusable mask? That means you can, you can clean it after reuse with alcohol and then use it again. Is that what you mean? You just wash it. It's washable. Are people wearing the mask? Are they, you know, walking around with them? You know, we went into what we call more stringent social distancing just yesterday. So I've not been out of my house since yesterday. I don't know. I've not seen people using the reusable. But prior to that, when the government delivered a message that we ought to conserve the surgical mask for the frontline workers, I saw the mask just falling off the people's faces because there was this level of trust in the government's messaging. It's very consistent. It's very regular. It's very uniform. So it doesn't matter who you speak to, whether it's the Minister of Health, Minister of Education, Minister of Manpower. They give you the same message. And that's, I think that's also one of the key components of why we have been able to manage the COVID-19. What about, now, what about the lockdown kind of thing? I mean, is there a message from government that you should stay indoors? Is there a message from government that restaurants and shops should close except for essential industries? What is the message that you're getting about, you know, sheltering in place? Yeah, so the latest message that came out is that we should stay home as much as possible. The only things that are open now, even schools just closed. This was the first day of my daughter's home-based learning. I had to kick her off the computer so that I could come on the computer with you. And this is the first day of home-based learning. Auto businesses, restaurants, pubs, whatnot, anything that are open are the essential services. So hospitals, gas stations, public transportation. So these are the only things that you can go to the post office, but just for emergency mailing. And food and drug stores, they're open, no problem. Thank you. Yes, those are open. The food markets are open. And there has been messaging to assure us that, you know, we have sufficient supplies. There's no need to hoard because when we start buying more than we need, that's when we really put strain on the system. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, go ahead. Sinking poor is so clever, isn't it? Yeah, I just wanted to say that, but we didn't start preparing for this just yesterday. The 2003 SARS outbreak, you know, 17 years ago. Since that outbreak, we have been preparing for today. So back then we had assembled a pandemic force, epidemic outbreak, and during the Zika outbreak. And this year, those teams come together again to address this pandemic. And let me tell you who this team comprised of. It's chaired by a director from the Minister of Health and it's chaired by our Minister from Minister of Home Affairs, and it has representation from across all public sectors. So no policy is made without input from all sector. It's not a one-man show. Everybody comes to the table. I think this pattern, this characteristic of integration is very prominent in the Singapore system of governance. You see it in education, manpower. So for schools, it's not the MOE or DOE where you are. It's not the MOE that decides what should be taught in school. They would have to consult the Ministry of Manpower, which is your Department of Labor on, you know, what are the jobs that are going to be in demand 10 years down the line, 20 years down the line. So there's always been this heavy integration across the different public sectors. Oh, gee, I'm so impressed, as I always am about Singapore. So right now, how has the numbers gone? You had some numbers. You diminished the numbers. Have you had a... Well, tell me how the numbers have gone since you had your first case? Okay, so our first case was back in January. Essentially, I see three waves. The first wave was, you know, imported cases. 70% of our cases were imported cases, primarily from China and then from other countries, too. So that was the first wave. And then the second wave was when we start seeing returnings from our own citizens or permanent residents or people with work pass holders, they start coming back. And the most recent wave, if you may, is we have seen two outbreaks just the past couple of days in the domestic workers, domestic workers' geometries. So in Singapore, a significant portion of the construction, almost all the construction are undertaken by foreign workers from Bangladesh, from Pakistan, and they live in geometries where one room would house 12 beds. So just imagine if one guy gets it, chances are the rest are going to get it. So the idolatry are on lockdown right now. So this is the third wave that I think we're trying to contain. So how many cases do you have these days? Get an idea for me? How many deaths have you had? As of today, let me just, as of today, we have 1481 cases and we have seen six deaths. That's low numbers, actually. I want to mention at this point that there was an article I just read not an hour ago about New Zealand. New Zealand has very strict rules, just like Singapore. And if you don't respond to whatever orders there are, you get fined and you go to jail. And the police are heavily involved in making it happen. And people in New Zealand are respectful anyway, as they are in Singapore. And so they have very good compliance. And the result is their numbers are really low. The article said it's not flattened the curve. They've squashed the curve and there are very few numbers, very few cases and only a handful of deaths in Singapore. That's not to say they have given up. They're going slack. They're not going slack. They keep on pressing. And I guess that would be the attitude in Singapore too. This is not a situation where you can become complacent. As soon as you turn your back on it, it bites you, am I right? And people feel that way and the government feels that way. Is that true? Yeah, we don't think we're anywhere near success. I think we have just somewhat managed to manage the COVID-19 by doing things in a very efficient way. And to be fair to our government, it's not just a stick policy. We're not just penalizing people. There's also the carrot part of it that we have to honor. So right from the beginning, testing, treatment was made free. Whether you're locals, whether you're visitors, that's all made free to you. So no out-of-pocket cost. And that's to encourage people to come forward to get tested. Now, if you're put in quarantine or put on stay home notice, you are reimbursed $100 from the government per day that you miss work. So you're not made to shoulder the financial burden on your own. And testing is available. In other words, if you decide you're a little concerned, you can go get tested for free anytime. No reason at all. This day is a little bit different. If I have mild symptoms and I go there, they will ask me to come home and just stay home for 14 days. I have to stay home for 14 days. But if I have any kind of respiratory illness, underlying conditions, then they would proceed to testing for me. And as far as testing, we don't have the issue of inadequate test kits. I think that is a major challenge that a lot of places are facing. Let me just give you a frame of reference. In Singapore, we test about 7,000 people per 1 million of the population. In Indonesia, a country that's much larger, they are only testing 36 people per 1 million. And I don't know what the number is. Yeah, so I don't know what the number is in Hawaii, but in Laos and Myanmar, there are still people bragging that they have almost close to zero number of infected cases. I think that's more a scenario of under testing and inadequate test kits than anything else. Yeah. Now, what about the availability of today, right now, the availability of masks and testing and ventilators for the hospitals, the availability of workforce in the hospital, healthcare workers in the hospitals? Are there any discussions or concerns about the inadequacy of those supplies and people? No issues with that so far. Again, we didn't prepare for this just yesterday. We've been preparing for this 17 years ago. So we have 1,000 ICU beds. Right now, 29 are being occupied by COVID-19 patients. And we have built this National Center of Infectious Diseases. The grand opening was just done in 2019 and it has really come in handy. So in this facility, you have double walls, you have rooms with negative pressure. Now, you compare this to Japan where they don't have isolation hospitals. So when you bring in a patient and put it into the hospital, he is running the risk of infecting the other patients that are in the hospital. This is a great concern. And Japan is having a problem. Japan is in crisis about COVID-19 right now. Speaking of Singapore, by the way, Singapore has the Duke-NUS, I guess that stands for something about Singapore Medical School. And there's a laboratory, a laboratory on infectious diseases there that was organized at the government's request by Dwayne Gubler, who had previously been at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Hawaii. He's a big name in infectious diseases. I mean, a worldwide name. And he's going to be on our show on Thursday. We're going to talk to him. But one of the things is that, you know, he has participated in the preparation you're talking about in the science and the research that makes Singapore so akamai about this. So I wanted to ask you also, you know, you get the messaging from these various government agencies and officials. I'm sorry to interrupt that. Just sorry to interrupt that, Jay. You mentioned the Duke-NUS School. I just want to quickly mention that that was the organized, the Duke-NUS team, the National University of Singapore. They were the team in conjunction with NCID, the National Center for Infectious Disease. They were the team to develop the first serological test kit for COVID-19. And so now that's been replicated in South Korea, in China and whatnot. But I'm sure your friend would be keenly aware of that as well. Yeah. His name is Dwayne Gubler. And if you watch Think Tech Hawaii this week, I think Thursday, you'll get to see him and have the benefit of his discussion. So you have all these government officials all on the same page. How are they communicating with you? Are they on television? Are they on social media? Are they on email? How are they reaching you when providing that very important singular message? So they're doing it doing various platforms. If there's a need, our Prime Minister Lee Shin-Long will come on TV and he's he put things to us in a very simple way. By simple, I don't mean simplistic. He does not play downplay the virus at all. And he put in a very calm and analytical way. So when there was a little bit of hoarding behavior, he came out spoke and that just calmed the population. We also have WhatsApp. You can hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans have subscribed to WhatsApp for the government WhatsApp group. And they were sent out reminders, two or three reminders a day. They would tell you the case count and whatnot. We also have a series of cartoons, which was part of our public awareness campaign. So it, so that makes it a little bit more easy for people to comprehend because it's all in graphics. In fact, it was so effective that the World Health Organization has taken that and translated that to different languages and using to. That's leadership, Lily. So, you know, I saved the best part till last because I want to know whether you get American television in Singapore, whether you get a chance to see our NB, MSNBC newscasting and our CNN newscasting. And for that matter, our Fox Newscasting and whether you get to see President Trump make his, you know, his statements from, you know, the White House about what's going on. Do you get to see any of that? You know, I do watch it. I don't own a television, but I do watch it online. And, you know, that really sad thing about this is there's all these rumors that Trump or the US administration is seizing all the 3MN95 coming into the country. Trump is actually stopping supplies from getting in because I have private purchasers or public purchasers. They're trying to buy the supplies and they're afraid to pay for them because they think that it's going to get stuck in a border. It's going to get seized by the US administration, by the Trump administration. Well, you know, one thing that came out, and I just saw it a little while ago this afternoon, is that Trump has been touting hydrochloroquine, hydrochloroquine, hydroxychloroquine medicine that some say it's from malaria, but some say it has a salutary effect on people who have a coronavirus and he's repeatedly been touting and recommending it and making public statements as if he was a doctor. And what came out this afternoon, which I'm sure you will hear more about, is that Trump owns a piece of the company that manufactures that drug. I'm not surprised. Just really extraordinary, the depths to which this administration will not sink. Sorry, just to add to that piece of messaging, I think I need to address a part about fake news too. We're also camping down on fake news. As you can imagine, they're floating all around, even coming from the Trump administration, but there's all this fake news floating around. So we have this POFMA Act, which is essential. You will get penalized if you're putting on the fake news and causing panic. So that is also part of the whole communication management from the Singapore government. Yeah, oh, very important, very important. And what about, you know, entry to Singapore? Singapore like Hawaii is an international city. People coming and going traditionally. I mean, your airport arguably is the best airport in the world. I'm not kidding. I've seen pictures and I've heard from so many people about what kind of an airport you live, you have there. So the question is, who can come these days? Can anybody come? Isn't there concern among the administration that it's dangerous to have visitors come as they were coming before? Well, we have banned all short term visitors. So if you're a Singaporean citizen coming home, if you're a permanent resident coming home, you're still allowed to come in, but you'll be quarantined. But we have banned all short term visitors. We were one of the very first countries to start banning tourists from China, despite the World Health Organization advising us against it. So at the end of January, that's when that came into place to stop the Chinese tourists from coming into Singapore. Yeah. Well, Singapore, as usual, is a lesson in being clever and I think you are safer there than you are here, as a matter of fact. So you're not coming back to Hawaii anytime soon, Lily? Is that it? Not anytime soon. I miss it though. I miss it though. You know, in terms of Hawaii, I don't think I've lived in a place where people are so incredibly gracious. You know, you have such a close community spirit. Aloha spirit, as I tell people, is not a myth. Hawaii is the one place where you can have a flat tire on the side of the road and you know for sure that somebody's going to stop and help you. And I hope it's, you know, with that kind of community resilience that, you know, you'll be able to get through this. I know there's some challenges on the government level. You have officials saying different things. So when the lieutenant governor and governor are not just not agreeing, you're looking left and right. Who do I listen to? Who do I believe? If you're mayor and governor are not saying the same, not conveying the same message, you encounter the same challenge and the level of trust gets corroded. Yes. Did you say corroded or corroded? Corroded. Joke, joke, joke. So Lily, going forward, you know, you're in a great spot to help us follow what's going on in Singapore. We should follow what's going on in Singapore. What measures they put in place, who their leadership is and what the leadership is saying, how people are reacting and of course how the cases are doing. The number of cases, the number of deaths and, you know, the restoration of the economy, very important. So I will, after this show, I will talk to you about doing a regular show with us where you can do remote guests just like you and me right now and connect up with people in and around Singapore and in and around coronavirus. So we can follow it from your side of the world. And I greatly look forward to doing that with you on a regular basis. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for the report. It's really important to hear from you. It's important that we, Hawaii, understand what's going on in other places and you are one of the places of great interest to us. Thank you, Lillian. Thank you so much and all the best to Hawaii. Thank you so much. Aloha.