On 15 March 2003, when the epidemiological nature of SARS was still unclear,
the MOH initiated a SARS taskforce to look into the mysterious strain. Only two
days later, after more SARS cases were reported and a better epidemiological
understanding of the strain was developed, the Singapore government swiftly
declared SARS a notifiable disease under the Infectious Disease Act (IDA) (Ministry
of Health, 2003b).