S’pore’s President & Speaker Come Down With Covid-19, Both Will Miss Events This Week

President Halimah & Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin Positive For Covid-19, Minister Edwin Tong Also Gets It

Singapore’s fifth wave of Covid-19 is well and truly here, and people around us are getting infected left and right.

That goes for our senior politicians as well, given they attend many events in the course of their work.

Now, our top leader President Halimah Yacob and Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin have come down with the virus.

Their positive tests mean they’ll have to miss some events this week.

President Halimah has mild Covid-19 symptoms

Mdm Halimah informed Singaporeans of her positive Covid-19 test in a Facebook post on Monday (4 Jul).

Thankfully, her symptoms are mild and flu-like, and she’s been vaccinated and boosted, she said.

However, she’ll have to miss events this week, though she didn’t specify what they were.

According to her Facebook page, her most recent event was on Saturday (2 Jul), when she attended the National University of Singapore’s (NUS’) Bukit Timah Homecoming event.

There, she reconnected with former classmates.

She hopes to recover soon, she added.

Speaker Tan tests positive before Parliament

Under Mdm Halimah’s post, Mr Tan — her successor as Speaker — commented that he’d coincidentally just tested positive too.

In his own Facebook post half an hour after hers, the Speaker said he’d tested positive before Monday’s Parliament sitting.

Lamenting that his “Covid-free days are over”, he added that he’d felt “a little flu-ish” and hoped his symptoms would be mild.

Meanwhile, he will have to miss two days of Parliament sittings, as well as his Meet-The-People session (MPS) tonight.

Mr Tan also apologised for cancelling events and appointments over the next few days.

Minister Edwin Tong also has Covid-19

Besides our President and Speaker, it appears that a minister has also come down with Covid-19.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong tested positive, it was revealed on Monday (4 Jul).

While he hasn’t yet said anything about it himself, the news was divulged by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, in Parliament today.

According to the Order Paper for the sitting on 4 Jul, MPs had asked 20 questions relating to the Government’s takeover of the Sports Hub.

Mr Tong was due to answer them today as part of a ministerial statement.

However, in light of Mr Tong’s Covid-19 infection, Mr Alvin Tan asked permission to have the reply deferred to Tuesday (5 Jul) or the following sitting in Aug.

Other ministers who got Covid-19

Unfortunately, Mdm Halimah, Mr Tan and Mr Tong are now part of a growing group of our leaders who’ve contracted Covid-19.

Ministers like Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah had also previously contracted the virus.

Thankfully, all their symptoms have been mild and they recovered quickly.

Get well from Covid-19 soon, President, Speaker & Minister

The fact that our top leaders have tested positive for Covid-19 proves that the virus doesn’t discriminate and sooner or later, most Singaporeans will get it.

We’ll just have to take safety measures seriously and practise social responsibility despite most restrictions having been removed.

MS News wishes Mdm Halimah, Mr Tan and Mr Tong a speedy recovery so they can get back to their busy schedules soon.

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Featured image adapted from Halimah Yacob on Facebook and Tan Chuan-Jin on Facebook