Singapore Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Mr Heng Swee Keat publicly commended a team from Duke-NUS for uncovering the hidden link between the Grace Assembly of God and the Life
Church and Missions SARS-CoV-2 clusters.
The Prime Minister noted in a Facebook post, published a day earlier, that Cases 83 and 91 from the Life Church and Missions cluster showed only mild symptoms and had not been diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier.
SOURCE: PM LEE HSIEN LOONG (FACEBOOK)
He added that the Duke-NUS serological tests had “subsequently confirmed that they had been infected earlier and linked the two clusters together.”
“This breakthrough would not have been possible without close cooperation among the Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore Police Force and researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, who developed the serological test, the world’s first,
here in Singapore. My thanks to all of you for a job well done!”
SOURCE: DPM HENG SWEE KEAT (FACEBOOK)
Deputy PM Heng echoed this sentiment in a Facebook post published today, stating that the Duke-NUS team had “done Singapore proud” by developing the tests. He added that the team did this just weeks after scientists and researchers
from A*STAR and Tan Tock Seng Hospital developed a diagnostic test kit for screening suspected SARS-CoV-2 cases.
“This is a world’s first—using serological testing to link different clusters of COVID-19 cases,” he wrote. “Well done to all the scientists and researchers who worked on the diagnostic test kit as well as the serological
test—you have made a difference!’’