DORSCON — or Disease Outbreak Response System Condition — is a colour-coded framework that tracks disease situations in Singapore, spanning four levels of increasing disease severity: green, yellow, orange and red.
The announcement that DORSCON had changed to orange indicated that COVID-19 was severe and spread from person to person but had not spread widely. The last time DORSCON had been raised to orange was during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
With the raised alert level, moderate disruptions to daily life came into effect while hospitals recalibrated operations to reduce the risk of spread. For a medical school like Duke-NUS, the disruption was immediate and far-reaching, testing the School’s adaptability and flexibility.