NA supermarket in Singapore (Source: straitstimes.com)Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry ChanChun Sing has stressed the need for the country to be mentally prepared for a possiblespike in the number of COVID-19 cases and increase supplies of necessities amid complicated developments of thedisease around the world.
Talking to reporters after visiting NTUC FairPrice's BenoiDistribution Centre on March 7, Minister Chan said that with a worldwide spike,an increase in the number of cases infected with the acute respiratory diseasecaused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Singapore is predictable.
He stressed the need for the country to continuously adaptits supply chain strategies to ensure sufficient supplies.
"As the rest of the world has more and more cases, wecan kind of expect there'll be more disruption to our global supply chain.
"That requires us to re-examine how much we muststockpile and at the same time re-examine which are the places we cancontinuously diversify so we can keep the supplies coming. That's the ongoingwork every day," he explained.
Singaporean businesses are stepping up the diversificationof supplies to better deal with the spread of the disease.
NTUC FairPrice group CEO Seah Kian Peng said that inventoriesare being built up for certain essential items such as rice, canned food andbiscuits.
By the end of March 8, Singapore recorded 150 COVID-19cases, of whom 60 are being treated and 90 are discharged from hospital./.
VNA
