Clan groups play an important role in social cohesion and making sure that help, such as Budget measures, reaches people on the ground, said President Halimah Yacob yesterday.

While the packages and several schemes outlined in this year's Budget will help firms and workers meet the challenges from the coronavirus outbreak, "a lot of translation on the ground" is required, she said.

"You are very close to the community and to the ground, so you know what are their concerns and how to engage them," Madam Halimah told Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK) members at a dialogue.

The President also addressed several questions on the Covid-19 situation, including the panic buying seen after the nation's disease outbreak response level was raised to code orange early last month.

Noting that other countries, such as Australia and the United States, also saw similar buying sprees, Madam Halimah said that the behaviour was not peculiar to Singapore.

"Human behaviour is extremely complex," she said.

"But after assurances were given... everything was okay, very calm."

She also said that social media has the effect of amplifying fear and panic, for example through sharing photos of the panic buying.

Madam Halimah was also asked if Singapore's reserves could potentially be drawn on to provide more help should the outbreak become prolonged.

Under the Constitution, the President safeguards the nation's reserves, which can only be drawn upon with her approval.

While the situation has not called for it yet, Madam Halimah said if there is a need and the Government has provided good reasons, it is something she will consider seriously.

"If the situation worsens, and we do need to unlock the reserves, that is something we have to do, because that deals with the question of our survival," she said.

She also said that ambassadors and foreign visitors have praised Singapore's transparency in dealing with the virus situation.

She said one of them shared that if Singapore said there were a hundred coronavirus cases, the visitor would believe there were exactly that many cases - no more or less.

"That's a remarkable statement of confidence on how transparent our system is, that we share all the information so that people understand where we are and what we are doing," she said.

Madam Halimah was speaking to about 50 attendees at the SHHK Cultural Academy in Sennett Road as part of her efforts to better engage the Chinese community.

It is her second visit to a Chinese clan organisation. She visited the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations at its Toa Payoh premises in December last year.

She ended the dialogue yesterday by emphasising the important role of clan groups in creating social cohesion.

She also called on the SHHK, which has around 5,300 members and is celebrating its 180th year, to hold more activities with groups from other ethnicities.

The minority communities do not know much about the clan associations, beyond the fact that they represent certain dialect groups, Madam Halimah said.

Holding more joint activities or even opening up existing activities to Malay, Indian and other cultural groups will help address this by creating mutual understanding, she said.

The SHHK has also done a "tremendous amount of good work" in terms of contributing to education for everyone, which other communities can learn from.

"When you know a lot more about each other, that's where we begin to build stronger bonds, and I think that's important," she said.