SINGAPORE - American singer Barbra Streisand has praised Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for speaking "common sense" and doing "everything that needed to be done to be ready for this virus".

Presumably referring to PM Lee's interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday (March 29), the 77-year-old tweeted: "The Prime Minister of Singapore (a country that only has three deaths out of six million people) speaks such common sense. He tells people the truth."

During the interview, PM Lee had called upon the United States and China - which have been pointing fingers at each other over the outbreak - to work together to combat the pandemic.

Since Streisand's tweet was posted, it has garnered over 180 retweets and more than 750 likes. Several Twitter users also praised PM Lee and compared his efforts to those by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Singapore's efforts to contain the coronavirus has also been praised by foreign authorities, such as the World Health Organisation. However, in the CNN interview, PM Lee said he was hesitant to call the Republic a "success story" and said that he does not see the pandemic going away in a few months.

Streisand, whose entertainment career has spanned six decades and has been recognised with numerous awards including two Academy Awards, 10 Grammy Awards and five Emmy Awards, has been tweeting extensively about the pandemic. Many of her tweets pan US President Donald Trump's actions in handling the outbreak in North America.