Singapore has the toughest measures’ to halt spread of SARS

Singapore has been praised by a BBC prime-time television news program for having "the toughest measures in the world" to halt the spread of SARS.

The British broadcaster’s flagship 10 p.m. news bulletin devoted the entire first part of the program to what the Republic was doing to combat the SARS virus.

Millions of Britons watching the top-rated news program saw Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and other ministers having their temperatures checked by electronic thermometers before entering parliament.

The BBC showed part of the parliamentary debate, during which new laws were passed to allow quarantine breakers to be jailed for six months and fined $10,000 even for a first offense.

British viewers also saw Ayer Rajah MP Tan Cheng Bock, who put himself in voluntary quarantine after treating a SARS patient, address Parliament from his home, via video link-up.

The BBC said that Singapore is "even trying to block the virus from leaving the country, illustrating the point with footage of airline passengers undergoing temperature checks by thermal imagery.

The program also carried an interview with Ali S. Khan of the World Health Organization in which he praised the republic’s efforts in fighting the spread of the disease.

‘I think the Singapore government has done an excellent job and I really would not characterize it as draconian.

"I would say they have put in state-of-the-art public health measures, with complete transparency," he said.

The BBC said the Singapore government felt that there was a need to get tough because infections were still rising, and that its ministers believed containment of SARS remained the only real option.

Footage was shown next of a night-time visit by an official to the apartment of a man who might have symptoms of SARS, to make sure he was following quarantine orders to stay home.

"Authoritarian, maybe, but it might just beat this alarming virus," the BBC said.