SINGAPORE: Health Minister Ong Ye Kung is set to lead a press briefing next week, providing updates on Singapore's readiness in addressing the mpox outbreak.
This announcement was made during an event celebrating a collaboration between Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) and SMRT Corporation to honor healthcare workers.
According to the Ministry of Health's latest infectious diseases bulletin released on August 29, Singapore has recorded 13 mpox cases in 2024, compared to seven in 2023.
Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is characterized by flu-like symptoms and skin lesions filled with pus. A new variant, clade I, has raised global concerns due to its heightened transmissibility through close personal contact.
On August 17, Mr. Ong expressed concern over the escalating mpox situation in Africa and other regions, emphasizing the need for Singapore to remain vigilant.
He noted that while the current risk of an outbreak in Asia and Singapore remains low due to the lack of direct flights from the affected African regions, the virus’s rapid spread in Africa could potentially reach the Middle East and Europe, which have direct flight connections to Singapore.
On August 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second consecutive year.
The ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in 27,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths since January 2023. WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern over the emergence of a new mpox clade, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the detection of cases in neighboring countries.
In the past month, more than 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of this new variant have been reported in four DRC-bordering nations that previously had no mpox cases: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
At the event held at Bayfront MRT station, SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming announced a new initiative to distribute 46,000 EZ-Link cards to all public, private, and community care nurses in Singapore as a gesture of appreciation for their hard work. The $10 prepaid cards, costing SMRT a total of $700,000, will be distributed by 2024.
Mr. Seah highlighted that the funding for these EZ-Link cards comes from SMRT’s savings achieved through its Kaizen initiatives, which resulted in over $100 million in productivity, reliability, and safety improvements in the past year.
Since adopting the Kaizen philosophy in 2018, SMRT has empowered its staff to propose and implement small, continuous improvements in their work areas, leading to significant gains in the company's efficiency and productivity.
