Army to deploy 100 soldiers to national call centre to answer Covid-19 patients' questions

SINGAPORE - The Singapore Army will deploy about 100 soldiers to help deal with the surge of Omicron cases here.

The soldiers will help beef up the national call centre to provide guidance, answer questions and reassure Covid-19 patients, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post on Friday (Feb 11).

Singapore has been experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases as the Omicron variant of the virus spreads in the community.

Thursday was the sixth day in a row that the number of hospitalisations crossed the 1,000 mark. The country also reported 10,542 new Covid-19 infections.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said hospital emergency departments were seeing high numbers of patients, resulting in long queues and waiting times.

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) had been involved in contact tracing efforts earlier during the pandemic.

In April 2020, The Straits Times reported that more than 1,300 SAF and Ministry of Defence personnel were involved in contact tracing and calling.

In October 2021, about 90 SAF regulars, 350 full-time national servicemen and 10 volunteers from the SAF Volunteer Corps were deployed to help the home recovery programme in various roles.

But in November last year, Dr Ng said that the SAF would be handing over the management of the Covid-19 home recovery programme to MOH, as the situation had stabilised.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.