Coronavirus will continue for a year or may be longer: Singapore PM

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Singaporeans on Thursday to expect the coronavirus to continue for a year or may be longer as the city state faces a "serious situation" with a "possible spike" in new cases.

However, Lee assured the situation remains under control and Singapore will not raise its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level to Red from the current Orange.

While Singapore has already imposed some travel restrictions, Lee said it will "have to tighten up further temporarily, though we cannot completely shut ourselves from the world".

Noting the World Health Organization's declaration of calling the virus outbreak as 'pandemic', Lee said COVID-19 is expected to "continue for sometime - a year, and maybe longer".

Despite Singapore having taken the situation with "utmost seriousness" and being held up by the WHO as an example to emulate, the country faces a "serious situation", said the Prime Minister in his televised address.

"We expect more imported cases and therefore new clusters and new waves of infection, this time coming from many countries rather than one or two," said Lee.

Emphasising that the situation in Singapore "remains under control", the prime minister said, "We are not locking down our city like the Chinese, South Koreans or Italians have done.

"What we are doing now is to plan ahead for some of the more stringent measures, try them out and prepare Singaporeans for when we actually need to implement them."
Lee said, "The issue is of course not religion itself, but that the virus can spread quickly to many people in crowded settings, like religious gatherings and services."