Visits to elderly residential care homes to be suspended amid cases of COVID-19 community transmission

SINGAPORE: Visits to all residential care homes serving the elderly will be temporarily suspended amid recent cases of COVID-19 transmission in the community, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Friday (Jun 4). 

The suspension will run for about two weeks from Jun 5 to Jun 20, both dates inclusive, and is aimed at reducing the risk of importing COVID-19 into such settings, and the risk of cross-transmission.

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“We will work with the homes on strengthening precautionary measures within homes, to assist homes in resuming physical visitations safely. This will include a review of visitor management and testing policies at the homes,” said MOH.

Co-chair of the multi-ministry task force Lawrence Wong on Thursday said that the authorities are "very concerned" about hidden COVID-19 cases in the community.

In a video posted on Facebook, Mr Wong said the multi-ministry task force has been monitoring the situation and considering what steps to take next.

“We are dealing with a very infectious and highly contagious strain of the virus, which is capable of spreading much faster than anything we've had to deal with before, and causing large clusters to break out easily,” said Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister.

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Singapore on Friday reported seven new COVID-19 infections in the community, its lowest in more than three weeks.

Singapore has reported a total of 62,158 COVID-19 cases and 33 fatalities as of Jun 4.

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