突然之間，新加坡的冠狀病毒病例激增，這是什麼原因

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礦石Huiying /蓋蒂

This article was published originally by 這篇文章最初是由PassBlue PassBlue, a partner of The Daily Beast which provides independent coverage of the United Nations. It was written by 他是《每日野獸》(Daily Beast)的合作伙伴，後者為聯合國提供獨立報道。它是由Noeleen Heyzer 海澤.

SINGAPORE — Singapore now has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, at 11,178, as of April 23. The daily coronavirus infection rate reached a new high of 1,426 as I write. Just over a month ago, Singapore, with 5.7 million people living in the limited space of 720 square kilometers (447 square miles), was praised for its response to the pandemic.

新加坡——截至4月23日，新加坡目前是東南亞地區出現19例登革熱病例最多的國家，有11,178例。每日冠狀病毒感染率達到了1426的新高。就在一個多月前，在720平方公里(447平方英里)有限的土地上生活著570萬人口的新加坡，因其對流感大流行的應對而受到讚揚。

My city-state is known for its world-class health system, public housing, infrastructure, and effective governance. The government and our public institutions learned from their coordinated, collective response to the SARS epidemic of 2003, and the situation seemed fully under control regarding COVID-19. So what happened?

我的城市國家以其世界級的衛生系統、公共住房、基礎設施和有效的治理而聞名。政府和我們的公共機構從他們對2003年非典疫情的協調、集體反應中吸取了教訓，關於19日非典疫情的情況似乎完全得到了控制。那麼發生了什麼?

Coronavirus Shows We Need an Apollo Project for Public Health 冠狀病毒表明我們需要一個阿波羅計劃來改善公共衛生

I had returned to Singapore from Thailand and Malaysia to take care of my aging relatives because of COVID-19. Malaysia, where my daughters live, was beginning to experience its worse coronavirus outbreak due to the tabligh gathering attended by 16,000 people in February. I crossed the border in mid-March just before Malaysia announced its lockdown.

因為COVID-19的原因，我從泰國和馬來西亞回到新加坡照顧年邁的親人。我女兒居住的馬來西亞，由於2月份1.6萬人參加了tabligh會議，正開始經歷最嚴重的冠狀病毒疫情。3月中旬，就在馬來西亞宣佈封鎖之前，我穿越了邊境。

When I arrived in Singapore on March 15, it was on top of the outbreak, with only 226 confirmed cases. The government had instituted strict border controls to keep imported cases out. It had effective cluster-and-contact tracing systems in place with strict quarantine and “stay home notices.”

我3月15日抵達新加坡時，疫情剛剛爆發，只有226例確診病例。政府制定了嚴格的邊境控制，以防止輸入病例。它擁有有效的集群和接觸者追蹤系統，並實施嚴格的隔離和“呆在家裡”通知。

Our doctors and front-line health workers labored around the clock, attending to the infected and keeping death rates low. Our leaders used a “whole of society” approach and communicated constantly with the public. The government was fully aware of the economic and social crisis brought on by the pandemic and wanted to prevent a crisis within a crisis.

我們的醫生和第一線的衛生工作者晝夜不停地工作，照顧受感染的人，使死亡率保持在低水平。我們的領導人運用“全社會”的方法，不斷與公眾溝通。政府充分認識到大流行帶來的經濟和社會危機，希望在危機中預防危機。

Three generous Unity, Resilience, and Solidarity budgets of $59.9 billion were rolled out to families, low-income households, small businesses and the self-employed, and employers and their businesses, to support the vulnerable and enable the socioeconomic conditions to bounce back after this unprecedented crisis.

我們向家庭、低收入家庭、小型企業和個體經營者以及僱主和他們的企業發放了599億美元的慷慨的統一、彈性和團結預算，以支持弱勢群體，並使社會經濟狀況在這場前所未有的危機後得以恢復。

Despite all these efforts, the invisible virus attacked our society at its weakest links and made visible those whom we depended upon but had undervalued and forgotten. Singapore is highly dependent on foreign labor for its prosperity, for the building of its infrastructure and for many essential services. As the borders between Singapore and Malaysia shut, with movement controlled by the Malaysian government, thousands of migrants crossed the causeway into Singapore from Johor, one of the busiest border crossings in the world, with 350,000 travelers passing the checkpoints daily.

儘管做出了這些努力，這種看不見的病毒還是攻擊了我們社會最薄弱的一環，讓那些我們依賴但卻被低估和遺忘的人變得可見。新加坡的繁榮、基礎設施的建設和許多基本服務都高度依賴外國勞工。隨著新加坡和馬來西亞之間的邊境關閉，馬來西亞政府控制了移民活動，成千上萬的移民從柔佛州的堤道進入新加坡。柔佛州是世界上最繁忙的邊境口岸之一，每天有35萬遊客通過檢查站。

Too many migrant workers who crossed the border every day found themselves stranded and homeless as the cost of even the cheapest room was far too expensive for them. The Singapore government, civil society, and employers did their best to provide temporary shelter and food.

每天有太多的移民工人穿越邊境，發現自己被困在那裡，無家可歸，因為即使是最便宜的房間對他們來說也太貴了。新加坡政府、公民社會和僱主盡最大努力提供臨時住所和食物。

But this was not the reason for the surge in local transmissions. There was another equally large group of migrants workers, mostly construction workers from South Asia, even more forgotten, housed in tightly packed dormitories. Many of us over the years had advocated for better working and living conditions for migrant workers, to little avail, as this would increase the cost of foreign labor for employers.

但這並不是本地傳輸激增的原因。還有另一大群同樣多的農民工，大多是來自南亞的建築工人，他們甚至更容易被遺忘，住在擁擠的宿舍裡。多年來，我們許多人一直主張改善移民工人的工作和生活條件，但收效甚微，因為這將增加僱主僱傭外國勞工的成本。

The situation needed a wake-up call from Prof. Tommy Koh, a former Singapore ambassador to the United Nations, who wrote in his widely shared Facebook post recently:

這種情況需要前新加坡駐聯合國大使許通美(Tommy Koh)教授的提醒，他最近在自己的Facebook帖子中寫道:

“The government has allowed their employers to transport them in flat-bed trucks with no seats. They stay in overcrowded dormitories and are packed likes sardines with 12 persons to a room. The dormitories are not clean or sanitary. The dormitories were like a time bomb waiting to explode. They have now exploded with many infected workers. Singapore should treat this as a wake up call to treat our indispensable foreign workers like a First World country should and not in the disgraceful way in which they are treated now.”

政府允許他們的僱主用沒有座位的平板卡車運送他們。他們住在擁擠的宿舍裡，12個人擠在一個房間裡。宿舍不乾淨，不衛生。宿舍就像一顆隨時會爆炸的定時炸彈。他們現在有很多受感染的工人。新加坡應該像對待第一世界國家那樣對待我們不可或缺的外國工人，而不是像現在這樣對待他們，這是一種警示。”

The Singapore government has taken serious action to deal with the confirmed cases in the dormitories and the rising infections among foreign workers. Its interagency task force has transferred workers to alternative living areas from the dormitories, particularly foreign workers in essential services, and also carried out a medical-support plan at all dormitories. The task force has also deployed support teams to all foreign-worker dormitories to work closely with dormitory operators to set up medical facilities for massive screening and testing and quarantine centers; to bring in supplies and food; and to manage lockdowns, logistics, and housekeeping.

新加坡政府已經採取了嚴肅的行動來處理宿舍裡的確診病例和外國工人中不斷上升的感染病例。它的跨部門工作組已將工人從宿舍轉移到其他生活區，特別是從事基本服務的外籍工人，並在所有宿舍實施了一項醫療支持計劃。工作組還在所有外籍工人宿舍部署了支持小組，與宿舍運營商密切合作，為大規模篩查和檢測檢疫中心建立醫療設施;帶來供應品和食物;管理倉庫、後勤和客房管理。

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has taken personal responsibility, saying, “We are paying close attention to the welfare of the foreign workers... They have played an important part, building our HDB flats, Changi Airport, MRT lines... We will provide them with the medical care and treatment that they need.”

新加坡總理李顯龍(Lee Hsien Loong)也表示了個人的責任，他說:“我們密切關注外國工人的福利……他們扮演了重要的角色，建造我們的組屋，樟宜機場，捷運線路…我們將為他們提供他們需要的醫療照顧和治療。”

He added that he will ensure that employers pay workers their salaries to remit money home. (HDB flats refer to public housing by the Housing Development Board; MRT lines refer to Mass Rapid Transport.)

他補充說，他將確保僱主向工人支付工資，讓他們把錢匯回家。(組屋單位指房屋發展委員會編訂的公共房屋;捷運線是指大眾快速運輸。)

Singapore has paid a heavy price in the crisis because its thinking on public health and COVID-19 management did not integrate the migrant population from the start. But Singapore is not alone in the recent spike of cases. The world is entering an extremely dangerous period, currently with at least 2.6 million cases. The United States and major European countries are the epicenters. The virus knows no geographical or political borders, political systems or ethnic, class, and religious divides. It does not discriminate, and hits everywhere and everyone. Global action and partnership are so vital now, to deal with the global pandemic and its aftermath.

新加坡在這場危機中付出了沉重的代價，因為它在公共衛生和COVID-19管理方面的思考從一開始就沒有把移民人口整合進來。但新加坡並不是最近病例激增的唯一國家。世界正在進入一個極其危險的時期，目前至少有260萬病例。美國和歐洲主要國家是震中。這種病毒不存在地理或政治邊界、政治制度或種族、階級和宗教分歧。它沒有歧視，到處都是，每個人都是。現在，全球行動和夥伴關係對於應對全球大流行及其後果至關重要。

We need to raise the bar for economic, social, environmental, and gender justice to shape a post-Covid world that will be better prepared to prevent a medical crisis from turning into another human tragedy. My hope is that this pandemic will force a profound mind-set change for people and our planet.

我們需要提高經濟、社會、環境和性別公正的標準，以塑造一個後鐵血時代的世界，為防止醫療危機演變成另一場人類悲劇做好更好的準備。我的希望是，這場大流行將迫使人們和我們的星球深刻地改變觀念。

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關鍵字: 流行性感冒 美好，一直在身邊 新加坡

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