Singapore's healthcare infrastructure is currently not overtaxed by the Covid-19 outbreak, but the authorities are keeping a close eye on the situation to ensure the system remains nimble enough to respond to any potential increase in demand.

The multi-ministry task force said this yesterday in response to a question about what level of community infection would put a strain on the healthcare system here.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, who co-chairs the task force, said that such a strain would not be the result of numbers alone, but the severity of infection as well.

For the past few months, the vast majority of patients have been young and able to recover on their own, keeping the need for hospital care or critical care low, he said.

At the same time, Singapore has been creating additional healthcare facilities such as community isolation facilities.

More hospital wards and beds have also been converted to cope with Covid-19 cases. As a result of all these factors, the Republic still has the capacity to deal with a potential surge in cases, said Mr Gan.

But he added: "We cannot take our capacity for granted because beyond the capacity, it is also about the manpower. Our healthcare workers are very stretched even at today's (infection) rate because all of them work very hard, overnight, tirelessly, so I think they need some breathing space... We do want to make sure that we are able to sustain the healthcare system, the healthcare workforce for the long term."

Healthcare services that had been deferred due to the outbreak, such as elective surgeries and the management of chronic diseases, will also need to be restored.

Mr Gan said healthcare institutions are seizing the opportunity presented by the low number of cases to restore some such services, while maintaining the ability to ramp up capacity once again should the need arise.

The Health Ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak added that the authorities are also closely watching the dengue situation here, as well as other disease outbreaks overseas. "If any of those other cases now come into Singapore, then that will increase the demand for healthcare infrastructure and services. Therefore, we are keeping a close watch to make sure that the services and capacity that we have remain nimble enough to adjust to the demands as they come."

Mr Gan said: "We should never take for granted that our healthcare capacity is always there. We should always be careful and we should always do our best to minimise community transmission because from our experience, we have also seen that the increase in the number of cases can be quite exponential... Therefore, we always have to be vigilant and minimise the risk of transmission."