800,000 Students to Receive Mosquito Repellents Amid Dengue Peak Season

Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) and Temasek Foundation began distributing mosquito repellents to all the students in the city-state's preschools, primary, and secondary schools on July 28, as per an NEA press release on the same day.

The initiative is in line with the agency's efforts to safeguard the community from dengue due to the severe dengue outbreak in the city-state.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Baey Yam Keng led the distribution at Pei Tong Primary School where he gave mosquito repellents to students and encouraged them and their guardians to take action against the spread of dengue.

The NEA reported that almost 22,000 dengue cases have been logged this year thus far, which surpassed the 5,258 cases recorded in the previous year.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito population in June 2022 also remained at a high point, around 2% higher than in the same period in June 2021.

"The risk of transmission remains high as there are still close to 300 dengue clusters across the island. The weekly number of cases is still very high, and we are in the early months of the traditional peak dengue season in Singapore," the NEA said.

The public was advised to do their part in breaking dengue transmission and regularly follow the Mozzie Wipeout "B-L-O-C-K" steps:

• Break up hardened soil

• Lift and empty flowerpot plates
• Overturn pails and wipe their rims
• Change water in vases
• Keep roof gutters clear and place BTI insecticide inside

The public was likewise urged to download the myENV app and configure it to send alerts whenever there's a dengue cluster near their residences.