so simple.. make tourists AND Sgreans scared scared, they all come/stay Sg instead.

Notice the news about Sg being some best tourist place in Asia coming around the same time ?

I support the Singapore government’s call for travel restriction to Victoria and all of Australia even. I do not see any reason why the state of Victoria should be crying foul over such a move. Blame it on its own authorities for allowing the H1N1 virus to spread all over the country because of one stupid lapse in allowing the cruise ship passengers to roam free when it was known that there were cases of H1N1 on board.

To think that Mr jennings is still trying to paint the rosy picture that it is not, is simply deplorable. He is more concern about the tourist dollar more than the potential loss of life.

I think the Singapore government’s move is a correct one and a very timely one. Nothing can be any safer than to be on the safe side, where human lives are concern. IMHO, the Victorian government can go fly kite.

gemami: then other countries shld follow sg’s example and issue warnings about traveling to singapore. we have been so complacent!!

The WHO’s alert state is at Phase 5, going to Phase 6.

What is Singapore’s alert state, hah? Can anybody tell me, please?

Better to err on the side of caution, than to find so many people die or suffer the illness because of carelessness, tida apa attitude and selfish interests.

Hi bye,

Interesting. As a matter of personal opinion, I actually would call for a total border restriction or closure for a period of up to 10 days. But that’s just a personal opinion.

There is a difference between the state of Victoria and Singapore. There is the size factor, the numerous transit points, the measures put in place by the authorities, the responsiveness of its people and its government, and the realisation of the impact such an outspread could bring about. In all these factors, you will notice that Singapore has immense advantage over that of the Australian state. This can be attributed to Singapore’s central position during the SARS outbreak of 2003.

Look closely at the number of confirmed cases between both parties, Victoria with over 1000 confirmed cases while Singapore has only 3 handfuls. This alone tells a very clear picture of why I mentioned the immense advantage Singapore has over Victoria. The efficiency of our safeguard measures and network have been able to carry out speedy identification, contact tracing and immediate isolation of H1N1 cases. These have kept our number of new infections very low.

In Victoria’s case, the sudden spread and rise of the number of cases, the paranoia from its people, the lackadaisical attitude of not addressing the problem but instead picking blame on another country’s sovereign right to warn its own people – these are telltale sign of a city that is in disarray.

No, my dear friend, travel warnings are reserved for countries that have shown a severe lack of responsibility toward tackling this global crisis.

Guys, can forgo economies, but not lives.

Hi What To DO,

A very valid question. I believe the Health Minister had already answered your question and I am also supportive of his reasoning.

The worldwide alert level is at phase five because of the collective number of cases the world is seeing and because of the continual spread from continent to continent. Recent outbreaks in Japan and Australia have placed the WHO on the verge of declaring a phase 6.

The reasons given by our health minister are:
a. that the H1N1 virus is not as lethal as was first expected and the drug, tamiflu, can handle the virus if diagnosed early.
b. that the measures put in place in Singapore will be able to tackle any community outbreaks.
c. that over-emphasising an alert will eventually drain off the importance of such alerts and result in complacency – especially when the number of cases remain low.
d. that an immediate upgrade of alert level remains imminent at all and any time.

If you have noticed, especially at our hospitals, when the news first came out, we were all hands on deck, preparing for the worse. After two weeks, the screening and control level of the staff manning these stations dropped significantly because it became a mundane and routine exercise with ‘no excitement’.

This is the biggest danger. Allowing the alert level to remain low meant that we put in less resource but not necessary less vigilance. In fact, because of the constant rotation and change of personnel manning these stations, we are seeing a better level of vigilance. Of course this is limited to those areas or buildings where such screenings take place. But then again, if one is to find an infected victim anywhere, it will most likely be at one of these places.

I think this is a good position to take, with all relevant parties being vigilant while not over-taxing resources and not tiring off before we conquer the enemy. We are definitely not ‘tidak apa’.

Of course, my position is exactly what notalone has remarked above.

gemami, blaming is good. Especially when the authority has made stupid blunders, they must find some distraction for the blaming to point somewhere else. A common enemy method usually works very very well.

ditto, Joel ;)

Ah! The world’s biggest false alarm – H1N1! But perhaps it would be wise to avoid some curry-bashing there lor, or perhaps kuay-teow bashing or satay bashing….hah!!

why not a travel ban to NY? most of singapore’s cases originate from there. But then what would Obama think?

#11

s’pore govt always loves to carry US ba***. Buying of weapons, banks trading etc.
———————————————————————————————————

Major events are currently ongoing or coming soon in s’pore.

1) Great Singapore Sale

2) Asian Youth Games 2009 in S’pore (June 29, 2009 to July 7, 2009 in over 90 sporting events)

3) Singapore Vs Liverpool (26 July 2009)

4) FORMULA 1 in S’pore (Sept 2009)

So no matter how severe is H1N1 (even IF the level goes up to 6 by WHO), S’pore govt will keep a low key. Cover up as much as they can through local media & bullshit tales from MPs (Just like Mas Selamat Case).

How much our s’pore health minister (not medical train) knows? He is good at telling you to put your parents in JB homes.

Temasek Holdings & GIC are bleeding. S’pore govt is clueless how to earn money till the offical day the Casinos are open.

#2 gemami

Yes. The right thing to do. Gahmen protect people in this case, but also kena hamtam : )

Melbourne got water restrictions so the Or-See people there don’t shower everday so carry the virus around. Like the Yanks, they didn’t get whacked by SARS so bochap.

I don’t see any reason why the Victorian should be offended by our Garmen’s initiative on the issuing of travel warning.I even feel that it should have been done much earlier before the 1st case that was ‘imported’ .

Singaporean should also be considerate and ‘automatic’and avoid unnecessary visit to those affected area .Do not visit those affected area just because you can afford to go for holiday or to arrange unnecessary courses or seminar there.Once you bring back the 1st case,it will be hard to control .

Anyway the cases is increasing here and I think it should be other countries that should be avoiding us.What we do not want to come to us,we should also not bring it to others.The Victorian should be thankful that we are considerate and not to travel there for the time being.

[...] H1N1 Swine Flu – The Gigamole Diaries: H1N1(aka American flu)…global spread – TOC: State raps Singapore on ‘hasty’ travel alert [...]

Or-SeeTtralia issues travel advisories all the time http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/ The latest one for Singapore mentions a “risk of terrorist attack” and our HiNi cases :)

The key word is ‘Non essential’

To watch melbourne cup is non-essential!

Its more of the State government’s response, rather than the federal. Before any S’porean tag every single state in Australia for being like Victoria, I would like to add that WA government has a different philosophy and therefore we have had only a barely handful of cases.

Perth is not unlike the state of Victoria, and therefore if the S’pore govt tags the WHOLE of Australia as ‘unsafe’, then I would protest it very much- because WA is not that badly affected. WA doesn’t have 1000 cases to date. We have only like 29 so far according to Reuters.

Plus, don’t forget Australia and NZ is currently in the winter period, not summer. Its the flu season. Its colder and hence people will get more prone to flu.

fully support our government’s alert. not often i agree with them but this is a must. my son who is there said that the people there walk about without masks even when they sneeze n cough. they are also very arrogant to claim that the reason for the high number of infection reported is because of their superior reporting and detection etc. the arrogance of the aussies! they always think they are superior to others, especially asians and they wish to be considered asian when they are clearly not. its only because europe n america dun want them around

aiyoyo

m’sia truly asia…..

aiyoyo

Wah, Howard can issue travel warning against sg when terrorist were bombing the region. Now we issue travel advisory aussies got problem with that.

Aussie top H1N1 imported case http://www.crisis.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/D4985A06-E928-4B4E-9A0B-938EDBC88860/24359/MOHPR_H1N12ndPRUpdate14Jun_rev.pdf

School holiday plan was to fly to melbourne to meet up with some friends. but decided not to. My friend told me not dangerous lah but I I told my friend, I may be healthy and recover fully from the flu but I may infect my 80-years old mother and this may be fatal to her siak..so decided to visit my friends in Malaysia