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SINGAPORE: Among travelers from higher-risk countries and regions who entered Singapore without pre-departure testing between November 18 and December 27, none of those who tested positive for COVID-19 resulted in local transmission, said the Monday Education Minister Lawrence Wong. (January 4).
Providing figures during his ministerial statement in Parliament, Wong said that more than 12,000 of those travelers, including Singaporeans and permanent residents, entered Singapore during that period.
About 100 of them, or 0.85 percent, tested positive for COVID-19. “Importantly, none of these cases have resulted in local transmission,” said Mr. Wong, who co-chairs the COVID-19 multi-ministerial working group.
As of November 18, all non-citizen travelers and non-permanent residents of higher risk countries or regions traveling to Singapore must take a COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure.
“We have not required this of citizens or PRs because we do not want to put up additional barriers for them to return home if they have an urgent need to do so,” said Mr. Wong, adding that children six and under also they are exempt from the requirement, as pediatric testing services may not be readily available in some countries.
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Singapore’s COVID-19 containment measures depend on the good management of hotels that are used as stay-at-home notification facilities, Mr. Wong said, noting that these facilities have strict protocols, such as segregating people with notification of stay in the house of other hotel guests.
“Even with these multiple layers of safeguards, the risk of leaks, while small, remains,” added Wong, citing the recent incident at the Mandarin Orchard hotel in which investigations into 13 imported cases were launched for a “potential link” between them. .
The 13 cases who delivered their stay-at-home notice at the hotel were found to have “high genetic similarity” despite coming from different countries, the Ministry of Health (MINSA) said on December 19.
This suggests that the cases “were likely infected from a similar source,” authorities said at the time, adding that they cannot exclude that the transmissions may have occurred at the Mandarin Orchard hotel.
The hotel received the green light to reopen and reopen on Saturday after the Health Ministry found no further transmission beyond the 13 cases. All hotel employees who were swabbed under “special testing operations” also tested negative for COVID-19 using the polymerase chain reaction test.
Epidemiological investigations are still ongoing to determine the source of the infection among the 13 cases, the Health Ministry said in response to the CNA’s inquiries on Monday.
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“Based on our preliminary investigations, there have been no violations of SHN (Stay-at-Home Notice) protocols at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel. But research suggests that infection protocols can be improved, for example through better crowd regulation, as well as good ventilation systems to circulate more fresh air, ”said Mr. Wong.
“We will continue to work closely with all SHN (Stay at Home Notice) hotels to ensure that infection prevention protocols are robust.”
As an “added safeguard,” all hotel staff who come into contact with people on a stay-at-home notice will now be placed on a routine 14-day testing regimen, it announced.
IMPACT OF THE VACCINE ON BORDER MEASURES
The government is “carefully” studying whether border measures can be relaxed for people who have been vaccinated, Wong said.
“The main benefit of the vaccine is that it offers protection to the vaccinated individual. Vaccination may also reduce the risk of transmitting the virus. But at present we still do not know the extent of the reduction, ”he told the House.
Adding that the government is monitoring “very carefully” ongoing studies on the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing the risk of transmission, Mr. Wong said: “If there is clear evidence that the risks of transmission can be significantly reduced, then we will certainly consider a relaxation for the SHN regimen for vaccinated travelers ”.
For now, a “more cautious” approach will be taken, and vaccinated travelers will remain subject to existing border measures and stay-at-home notification requirements.
“We will adjust our approach over time, once we better understand the effect of the vaccine,” said Mr. Wong.
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