S’pore Contributing $1 Million to Groups in China to Fight Wuhan Virus


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The world is in bad shape, but that doesn’t mean that we turn our backs on each other and refuse to help those in need. Singapore is doing a good job of demonstrating that.

According to CNA, the Singapore government will offer seed funding of a whopping $1million to groups helping communities in China.

This is in hopes of providing them aid in their time of need as they struggle to fight a deadly novel coronavirus that has claimed the lives of as many as 400 people and counting.

The Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said, “The Singapore Government will be supporting efforts by the Singapore Red Cross, our Singapore Trade Associations and Chambers, companies and local community organisations to launch a public appeal to raise funds to provide humanitarian assistance to the communities in China which have been severely affected by the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.”

MFA also said, “Singapore wishes China well in its efforts to fight the nCoV (novel coronavirus).”

Beyond just providing the usual medicine and medical supplies, MFA has also said that they will be giving diagnostic test kits for the coronavirus that can be used in laboratories.

The Singapore Red Cross spokesperson, secretary-general and CEO Benjamin William said the society “welcomes” the seed money from the government and says, “We expect the outbreak to continue to spread in China and geographically with the number of new cases rising in the next days and weeks.”

“Our planned response at this point is focused on assisting the communities worst affected in China.”

However, he has high hopes that Singapore, China and the rest of the world will be able to fight the novel coronavirus.

“Singapore is confident that through close cooperation, China, Singapore and the rest of the international community will overcome this challenge.”

Number Of Cases Escalating

The number of confirmed deaths in China just keeps on increasing. At the time of writing, the number of deaths is over 400, surpassing that of the SARS. There was also a surge in confirmed cases, at 3,235 new cases.

This means that the number of cases in mainland China alone is more than 20,400. On the other hand, 20 other countries have already seen confirmed cases.

In Singapore, 24 confirmed cases including a locally transmitted case have been announced by the Ministry of Health.