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SINGAPORE: The small percentage of people with acute respiratory infections who test positive for COVID-19 indicates that the community prevalence of the coronavirus is “low,” Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Friday (September 4).
He was responding to a parliamentary question from Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam about the number of patients tested for COVID-19 after showing symptoms of acute respiratory infection and if there are plans to intensify random testing in community.
Beginning July 1, people 13 years of age and older with symptoms of an acute respiratory infection in the first instance will be screened for COVID-19.
Between July 1 and August 16, 76 percent of patients who were diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at polyclinics and public health preparedness clinics had a polymerase chain reaction test for COVID-19 Gan said.
“Of these, a small percentage – 0.03% – tested positive, indicating that the community prevalence of COVID-19 is low,” he said.
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“As clinical and scientific evidence shows that an infected person is most infectious just before and immediately after the onset of symptoms, testing all people diagnosed with (acute respiratory infection) early allows the Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health ) quickly detect infected people to contain more spread, “he added.
Surveillance tests will also be conducted for groups that are identified as “most vulnerable” or have a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, said Mr. Gan.
This includes workers living in the dormitories of migrant workers, workers returning to work in the construction, marine and process sectors, and workers supporting COVID-19 frontline operations. More than 200,000 of these people are tested every two weeks.
The Health Ministry will also expand the testing to more community groups, including taxi drivers and private rental car drivers, food delivery personnel, key vendors serving foreign workers’ dormitories and stalls at street vending centers, markets. and selected food and drink establishments, such as coffee shops.
READ: COVID-19 testing to be offered to more community groups such as taxi drivers, food delivery people and street vendors
“While there has been no local evidence that these community groups are at increased risk of infection, the Ministry of Health will offer them testing as part of our expanded testing and surveillance efforts given the nature of their work environment, such as the high frequency of interactions with members of the public.
“These unique test operations will help provide a better picture of the prevalence of the population,” he said.
Incoming travelers will also be screened upon arrival or during the stay-at-home notice period to detect cases and reduce “community transmission.”
In response to a question from Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera, Mr. Gan said that the average waiting time between performing the swab test and when the test results are available in the labs is 30 hours. . The average delivery time is 22 hours.
“Confirmed cases will be notified by the relevant parties expeditiously so that the necessary public health actions can be taken,” he added.
Singapore’s testing strategy focuses on “active case finding” and targeted surveillance, Gan said.
“These tests are based on a holistic and concerted strategy to detect and screen active infections as early as possible to prevent further transmission,” added the Minister of Health.
TRACETOGETHER APP
The TraceTogether app, which was launched in March to help with contact tracing efforts, has been downloaded by 2.4 million people since its launch, said the prime minister’s chief minister, Teo Chee Hean.
I was answering a question from Mr. Giam about the number of active users and the number of contacts that have been identified through the app.
About 1.4 million users actively used the app in August, Teo said.
“The program (TraceTogether), SafeEntry and associated digital systems provide the initial list of close contacts of positive COVID-19 cases for our contact tracing teams to work with,” he added.
“This has allowed us to reduce the time to identify and quarantine a close contact from four days to less than two days today.”
Since the Government switched to this “concept of operations”, 118,000 close contacts have been identified, of which 4,500 tested positive for COVID-19 during the quarantine.
“The effectiveness of TraceTogether and SafeEntry is based on broad community participation. This is how we collectively contribute to keeping ourselves, our loved ones and our colleagues safe. The more people in the system, the more effective the protection,” he added the chief minister. .
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