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KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore has eased its approach to managing Omicron cases, including lifting travel restrictions on 10 African countries and patients no longer being placed under isolation in dedicated facilities by default.
The island republic’s Health Ministry in a statement said this comes after international evidence indicated that it is likely to be more transmissible, but less severe than the Delta variant, and that vaccines – especially booster shots – retain substantial protection against hospitalisations caused by Omicron.
“Today onwards, the island republic’s Health Ministry will allow Omicron cases to follow Protocols 1-2-3 as with other Covid-19 cases, and no longer be isolated in dedicated facilities by default.
“Omicron cases will be placed on the Home Recovery Programme or managed at community care facilities depending on their clinical presentation.
“Close contacts of Omicron cases will be placed on Protocol 3, where they will be issued a seven-day health risk warning instead of being quarantined for 10 days. Those currently in quarantine will be progressively discharged over the next few days.”
Meanwhile, the Singapore government has ended travel restrictions on Botswana, Eswatini, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
All passengers with a 14-day travel history to the listed countries will be allowed to enter and transit through Singapore, and subjected to border measures for Category IV countries and regions.
From February 1, the island nation will also make vaccination a condition for the approval of new applications for and the renewal of existing long-term passes, work passes, as well as permanent residences.
January 15 onwards, the Singapore government will remove the pre-event testing concession for unvaccinated individuals to go to work under the Workforce Vaccination Measures.
“We will open applications for a second round of free RTK-Ag test kit distribution for workplaces not on mandatory rostered routine testing to implement voluntary weekly testing for two months. This will facilitate early identification of cases and reduce workplace transmission as more return to their workplaces,” said the ministry.
Singapore has reported 546 confirmed Omicron infections, comprising 443 imported and 103 local cases as of December 25. Last week, there were 13 unlinked community Omicron cases and 78 infections from local linked community transmissions. – The Vibes, December 27, 2021