President improves steadily

"The attending specialist doctors again expressed satisfaction in this regard and now decided to intermittently turn off and turn on the respirator to assess whether his lungs can function fully on their own," said an official statement from Singapore yesterday.

Once they are satisfied, they will finally stop and withdraw the respirator machine. "While they hope the respirator can be finally withdrawn over the next two days, they would proceed very carefully and cautiously in this regard," said the statement.

The president will be shifted to a cabin in the regular ward only after he has been taken off the respirator.

The renal function of the president has registered further improvements. Function of all other systems also continued to improve and remained "stable".