Ho Ching waves to revelers during the Chingay Parade in Singapore on Jan 31, 2020. (BLOOMBERG)

Ho Ching, head of Singapore’s state-owned investment company and wife of the country’s prime minister, blasted criticism on the city-state’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, saying it wasn’t alone in misreading the pandemic’s spread among patients who don’t display symptoms.

We all underestimated the asymptomatic transmission -- not just SG, but the world over,” Ho Ching said in a Facebook post late Friday night. She said she’s frustrated by “I told you so” comments, adding that “hindsight is always beautiful and perfect”

“We all underestimated the asymptomatic transmission -- not just SG, but the world over,” Ho said in a Facebook post late Friday night, using the abbreviation for Singapore. She said she’s frustrated by “I told you so” comments, adding that “hindsight is always beautiful and perfect.”

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While she didn’t say who the cryptic rebuttal was directed at in the post, a report that went live on Friday said Ho admitted that the government made a mistake in bringing Singaporeans home when the number of infections surged globally.

“Nope! Don’t put words in my mouth, young man!” Ho said in her Facebook post. She added that the unnamed critic shouldn’t “waste time being a back-seat driver” and should stop acting like a “smart alec, by blaming this or that person.”

The number of cases in Singapore soared past the 5,000 mark as authorities detected more infections among migrant workers living in close quarters. An additional 623 cases were reported Friday after a record 728 on Thursday, when the number of COVID-19 infections doubled over a week.

Singapore, which was seen as a success model in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, has now been hit by a setback after virus cases rose at dormitories for foreign workers. These patients now make up about nine in 10 of new cases reported in the past week.

A number of new cases before the latest increase came from the return of Singapore students and workers overseas. “It’s absolutely the right thing to do, to call our people home,” she said.

Ho is the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who has directly addressed the nation on a number of occasions to calm fears amid the outbreak. The city-state imposed its version of a lockdown, called a “circuit breaker,” more than a week ago.

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Ho is also the chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings Pte, which manages a S$313 billion (US$220 billion) portfolio as of March 2019. The state investor is the biggest stakeholder in half of the country’s 10 biggest companies by market value, including flag carrier Singapore Airlines Ltd, which was hard hit by the pandemic. Singapore’s key stock index has lost almost a fifth of its value since the start of the year.