Ministerial statement: Ong Ye Kung on Singapore’s response to current global COVID-19 situation
The Government is “acutely aware” of public concerns surrounding potential COVID-19 risks posed by China’s reopening on Jan 8, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung. In a ministerial statement to Parliament on Monday (Jan 9), he explained Singapore’s approach. He said controlling the number of travellers and requiring pre-departure tests for the unvaccinated have led to low numbers of imported infections and even fewer severe cases from China, at a time when the virus was spreading widely in the country over the month of December. The Ministry of Transport will “carefully calibrate” any adjustments from the current low travel volume from China, at least until the infection wave there has clearly subsided. Mr Ong said Singapore’s greatest worry is the emergence of a new, unknown and more dangerous variant of concern - from anywhere in the world. Testing all travellers from China, as some countries are now doing, will not help to detect this. So far, genome sequencing run by global body GISAID and done by Singapore on infected travellers shows that the epidemic in China is being driven by variants that are well-known and have been circulating elsewhere in the world. The second big concern for Singapore is protecting its healthcare system. Mr Ong explained why on-arrival PCR tests and testing wastewater from planes would be of limited use, and why maintaining the requirement of vaccination or a pre-departure test for travellers from all parts of the world will directly reduce the risk of importing severe cases and protect Singapore’s hospital system. He said Singapore must expect new COVID-19 infection waves from time to time and that vaccination is “part of the new norm”.
The Government is “acutely aware” of public concerns surrounding potential COVID-19 risks posed by China’s reopening on Jan 8, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung. In a ministerial statement to Parliament on Monday (Jan 9), he explained Singapore’s approach. He said controlling the number of travellers and requiring pre-departure tests for the unvaccinated have led to low numbers of imported infections and even fewer severe cases from China, at a time when the virus was spreading widely in the country over the month of December. The Ministry of Transport will “carefully calibrate” any adjustments from the current low travel volume from China, at least until the infection wave there has clearly subsided. Mr Ong said Singapore’s greatest worry is the emergence of a new, unknown and more dangerous variant of concern - from anywhere in the world. Testing all travellers from China, as some countries are now doing, will not help to detect this. So far, genome sequencing run by global body GISAID and done by Singapore on infected travellers shows that the epidemic in China is being driven by variants that are well-known and have been circulating elsewhere in the world. The second big concern for Singapore is protecting its healthcare system. Mr Ong explained why on-arrival PCR tests and testing wastewater from planes would be of limited use, and why maintaining the requirement of vaccination or a pre-departure test for travellers from all parts of the world will directly reduce the risk of importing severe cases and protect Singapore’s hospital system. He said Singapore must expect new COVID-19 infection waves from time to time and that vaccination is “part of the new norm”.
Popular Shows
