Amid coronavirus threat, Tamil Language Festival in Singapore postponed until further notice

The Tamil Language Festival 2020, scheduled to be held from April 4 to May 3 in Singapore, has been postponed until further notice due to the threat of the novel coronavirus disease, local media reported, citing Tamil Language Council chairman.

Channel News Asia quoted chairman S Manogaran as saying, "Many of our festival programmes are meant for students and families. Their safety and well-being, as well as that of our partners, is our priority. As such, we have decided to postpone the Festival, which is in line with the Ministry of Health's (MOH) advisory to cancel or defer large-scale events in view of the COVID-19 situation."

The four-week festival would have featured literary, oratorical and cultural programmes, and had "Love Tamil, Speak Tamil" as the theme.

Earlier on Monday after the total number of people infected from coronavirus in Singapore rose to 75, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the economic impact of the virus outbreak has already exceeded that of SARS in 2003 and warned that a recession is possible.

Coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, last year, and has since then killed more than 1800 people in that country alone, while cases have been registered in several countries across the world, including India.

Last week, Singapore's Ministry of Health said the government will pay the hospital bills incurred by patients infected by the virus - officially known as Covid-19. This coverage does not extend to outpatient treatment at general practitioner clinics or polyclinics, nor does it apply to treatment sought at private medical facilities, the ministry said, as reported by The Straits Times.

Singapore has also raised its disease outbreak response level to 'orange' after confirmed cases with no travel history to China or links to the past cases, surfaced in the country.