MOH, management to do their best to support healthcare workers through Omicron wave: Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE: Health Minister Ong Ye Kung assured healthcare workers that the Ministry of Health (MOH) will do its best to support them through the infection wave and to help further reduce COVID-19 patient loads in the coming days.

"You are probably receiving this message while inundated with a heavy workload, due to the high number of daily Omicron cases," Mr Ong said in a letter addressed to healthcare workers dated Monday (Feb 21).

Mr Ong said he wanted to let them know that the ministry, as well as the healthcare workers' management, will continue to do their best to support them and address manpower shortages during this period. 

He noted that several measures had been taken, such as ensuring healthcare workers were given priority to vaccines and boosters, spreading out cases by leveraging on COVID-19 treatment facilities and general practitioners, and the implementation of the no-visitors policy.

"We will continue to do whatever we can," said the minister.

To help further reduce patient loads, Mr Ong said that the ministry will push out public messages to encourage those with mild symptoms to recover from home, and for employers to not require medical certificates (MCs) from workers infected with COVID-19 "in the coming days".

Sick leave of healthcare workers can also be recorded as hospitalisation leave during this period at the request of the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union, he added.

For foreign healthcare workers hoping to return home, a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) with the Philippines will start soon, and the VTL quota with India will be restored.

Mr Ong expressed his appreciation of the Singapore Armed Forces, which has supplemented healthcare manpower for hospitals facing the heaviest patient loads with its trained medics.

"For our healthcare workers, whether Delta or Omicron, I know your workload has been heavy," said Mr Ong in the letter.

"But MOH and the Multi-Ministry Taskforce will also need to continue to explain to the public that Omicron is less severe than Delta because from the public’s point of view, they need to know that Omicron poses less of a risk."

In doing so, the public will be able to respond to the infection wave calmly, recovering from home when their symptoms are mild instead of rushing to the hospitals, said Mr Ong.

He also addressed those who may be wondering why Singapore is streamlining its safe management measures now.

"So long as we hope to regain our normal lives, we will have to deal with an Omicron transmission wave," he said, describing it as a "force of nature", adding that the "micro rules" do not make a difference at this stage.

"Instead, we want to focus the public on the key measures that can still help flatten the transmission wave, namely group sizes, masking, and vaccination-differentiated measures," he said.

"That is why we have not made any changes to these rules. For the rest, we should streamline them."

Mr Ong urged healthcare workers to "hang in there for a while more".

If Singapore is like other countries, cases should fall in the coming few weeks, with society becoming stronger each day and moving closer to normalcy, he said.

"It is no longer light at the end of tunnel, but barring unforeseen circumstances, it is something within our grasp," added Mr Ong.

"Please convey our thanks to your family members and loved ones too, for supporting you through these difficult times. Take care, and thank you."