The Singapore government ran headlines of a propaganda claiming that they found “the link” between several major infection clusters.
A check with their claims revealed it is baseless and filled with loopholes.
A key finding by States Times Review is that none of the infected exhibited symptoms at the time of infection. The premise is that the virus cannot be spread without the mode of transmission, either by coughing, sneezing or spreading of bodily fluid.
For example, in case 8 and 9, the Wuhan couple were said to have infected others at a church gathering on Jan 19. The Wuhan couple however only displayed their symptoms a week after on Jan 24.
This means it is the polar opposite of what the government claimed: the Wuhan couple contracted the virus from the Jan 19 gathering, instead of them infecting others. The actual infection source of the Jan 19 gathering remains unsolved.
This is the same for another claim by the Singapore government, which claimed that case 83 and 91, infected others at a Chinese New Year gathering at Mei Hwan Drive on Jan 25. The two cases exhibited their symptoms only 3 days after attending the gathering, on Jan 28 and Feb 1. Case 83 and 91 did not spread the virus on the Jan 25 gathering, and they likely could have been infected from the Jan 25 meeting. This also breaks whatever link between the Mei Hwan Drive cluster and the Life Church cluster as the government claimed.
The MOH report also revealed a severe lapse of not testing suspect cases, that led to widespread local transmission.
Case 66, a church worker, could also have been stopped if the GP clinics did not turn him away for testing three times on Feb 2, Feb 5 and Feb 12. He was only tested positive on Feb 14. A total of 15 others were infected at Grace Assembly church, where case 66 worked.
If the MOH report can be trusted, it means that infected individuals who are not displaying symptoms are widely contagious – which is untrue.
The propaganda fake news has been carried by dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, which is trying to “inject good news” in the recession triggered by the virus.