Government has imposed Code Red measures without calling the situation Code Red

[jw5]

from msn.com:

Visitors to SGH, CGH wards for longer than 20 minutes must submit to Covid-19 testing​

Singapore– Those who wish to visit patients at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Changi General Hospital (CGH) for more than 20 minutes will be required to do a Covid-19 antigen rapid test (ART) from Monday, June 21.

This includes registered carers of warded patients, and a negative test result is necessary before visitors are granted entrance into the wards, according to SGH in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Self-testing kit results will not be accepted however, visitors may present the results of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed within the last 24 hours. The testing is free, and the findings are only valid for the day of the visit.

The tests will be performed in the ART centre at SGH’s Bowyer Block, and the results will be available in 20 minutes, according to the hospital. After passing the exam, the visitor will be issued a sticker and will be able to see the patient in the ward.

SGH stated that the testing is in line with the countrywide relaxation of Covid-19 limits that took effect on Monday. “With the easing of restrictions, it is important to engage in proactive screening in order to ensure that our patients and staff members remain safe,” the hospital stated.
Existing inpatients will get an SMS with information on undergoing ART from their assigned caregivers.
Upon admission, newly hospitalised patients and their carers will be given information.
CGH said it would be implementing the same measures.

 

[jw5]

from msn.com:

Coronavirus quarantine: Singapore pips Hong Kong in quantity and range of usable hotels, getting the edge in resuming travels​

Singapore pips Hong Kong in quarantine facilities for visitors and returnees, an advantage that gives the city state the edge in resuming business travels to kick start the local economy.

One in every four Singapore hotels is usable as a facility for so-called stay-home notices (SHN), compared with one in 10 in Hong Kong, according to tourism and government officials of both cities. In absolute terms, Singapore's SHN facilities are more than double the number of Hong Kong's quarantine venues, even if the Lion City has 17 per cent fewer hotels than Hong Kong.


"Singapore's system is more efficient and more convenient, especially if they can guarantee a decent room and a decent hotel," said Banque Transatlantique's Hong Kong managing director Herve Guinebert, who used to travel to Singapore once or twice a year. The Frenchman booked a quarantine room at Hong Kong's Regal Airport Hotel for his return to the city from a holiday in France at the end of June.

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The comparison offers a crucial peek into the practicality of each city's readiness to resume travelling, as increasing vaccination and a slowing in the spread of the coronavirus outbreak triggered discussions to reopen borders. The two cities twice postponed their so-called travel bubbles for travelling to resume between Hong Kong and Singapore.



More than 70 hotels in Singapore, or 26.3 per cent of the 226 in the city state, have served as SHN facilities since March 2020, according to the Singapore Tourism Board's director of SHN operations Geraldine Yeo. The number of SHN facilities depends on demand, with various hotels activated as and when needed.

Inbound travellers pay fixed fees of between S$1,300 (US$970) and S$3,000 for meals and stay in assigned hotel rooms for the duration of their quarantine period of between 14 and 21 days. Guests also have the option to go up market for suites at the Fairmont Singapore, Swisshotel's The Stamford or the InterContinental Roberson Quay, among others, which charge fees between S$5,000 and up to S$30,000 for the quarantine duration.

Hong Kong, with a larger population and more hotels, assigned 33 hotels, or 11 per cent of the city's 312 licensed hotels, to serve as quarantine venues from June 20 until August 31, according to a government spokesman. Travellers must book their own rooms, and the short supply is casting a pall on visitors and returnees alike. Of the 28 hotels contacted by South China Morning Post, the Regal Airport Hotel, located next to the city's airfield in Lantau, was the only venue with rooms available in June.

The number of available hotels increased by two compared with the previous cycle from April 21 until June 19. Still, that is barely enough for a city with 86,000 rooms across more than 300 hotels, which received 22,244 visitors in the first four months of 2021. The hotel industry has been hard hit by Covid-19, with arrivals plunging 94 per cent to 3.6 million in 2020, a far cry from the 65.1 million recorded in 2018.

"We alerted the government about the issue based on input from our members," said George Leung, chief executive officer at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC). "We believe the government will assess the situation and negotiate with potential suppliers of hotel rooms to address the shortages."



Hotels that join the Hong Kong government's quarantine scheme are guaranteed an income, which is a boon amid plunging tourism visits to the city. Still, staycation is on the rise in Hong Kong, as families replace their overseas trips with stays around the city, bolstering the occupancy of some high-end venues to between 25 per cent and 45 per cent.

That presents hoteliers with a dilemma: to forego the guaranteed income or put up with the stigma associated with any outbreaks or infections on their premises, analysts said.

"Upscale hotels have a lot of factors to consider whether they want to become a quarantine hotel or not," said Emily Leung, senior analyst at market research firm Euromonitor International. "Hong Kong's staycation market is definitely on the move, so if customers find out that a hotel is a quarantine venue, will they still use it for staycation? It actually puts up a barrier for them."

Hong Kong's hoteliers don't need a particularly long memory to recall the experience of the Metropole Hotel in Mongkok, which became ground zero of the 2003 outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars. A visitor from southern China's Guangzhou city stayed overnight at the four-star hotel, where the disease spread to 13 tourists from Singapore and Canada. The event that precipitated the city's sole property bear market in three decades was seared in Hong Kong's collective memory, forcing the hotel to undergo a renovation and rebranding to become the Metropark Kowloon.

© Provided by South China Morning Post The Metropole Hotel in Mongkok photographed on 19 March 2003. Photo: SCMP
"Joining the quarantine scheme guarantees secured revenue for a couple of weeks or months, but (the designated hotel) might damage its brand image and lose out to competitors" when the post-coronavirus tourism and travelling resume," Leung said. "Hong Kong people are very careful," and "the choice between a luxury experience and a quarantine hotel" gives the former the advantage in a highly competitive market, she said.

To be sure, the shortage of available rooms has hindered the resumption of business travelling, a vital aspect of keeping Hong Kong relevant as Asia's financial hub. Hoteliers are urging local authorities to designate more hotels for quarantine.

"Our federation has contacted the government to release more blocked-off rooms for booking under the designated quarantine hotel scheme mechanism," said Winnie Chan, association manager at The Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, with 94 members including the Four Seasons in Central and the Dorsett in Kwun Tong. "The government reserves the right to request hotels to make all or some of these (blocked-off) rooms available for booking. This can help meet the high demand and also help Hong Kong business to pick up again."

The federation's members are interested to join the government's quarantine scheme, but have not been selected, she said. "They are willing to cooperate with the government," Chan said. "We will continue monitoring the situation."

 

[jw5]

from straitstimes.com:

Study of 29,000 people quarantined in S'pore shows Covid-19 vaccines can prevent infection and severe illness​

SINGAPORE - A local study analysing the data of 29,000 people quarantined in Singapore, including those unvaccinated, has found that Covid-19 vaccines offer 79.1 per cent protection against the disease.

A similar study done in Britain found that vaccination offered 88 per cent protection, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Friday (June 18).

"We are 79 per cent, so not very far off," added Mr Ong, who was speaking at the press conference held by the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19.

Vaccination also reduces the risk of an infection developing into a severe illness.

Mr Ong noted that of the 629 local cases reported since April 11 who had not been fully vaccinated, 54 of them or about 8.6 per cent developed serious illness, needing oxygen supplementation or admission into intensive care units (ICU).

"As for those fully vaccinated, there are altogether 158 persons who have been infected, two of them (1.3 per cent) required oxygen supplementation and none had ever been in the ICU.

"Both also had pre-existing illnesses. One was a patient at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and the other a resident of MINDSville  @  Napiri," the minister added.

As at Thursday, there are 33 cases linked to the MINSDSville  @  Napiri cluster, while the TTSH cluster with 48 cases had closed on June 6.

"If we exclude all the patients and residents of TTSH and MINDSville (who were infected with Covid-19), altogether there are 120 fully vaccinated individuals who were infected, all of them either had no symptoms or mild symptoms," said Mr Ong.

Giving an update on the vaccination drive here, the minister said as at June 15, more than 4.7 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Singapore.

More than 2.7 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

This means that 49 per cent of the population have received the first dose, and slightly over 35 pent have received both doses and are fully vaccinated.

For seniors above the age of 60, 75 per cent of them have received at least one dose of the vaccine or booked an appointment, he said, adding that around 1,000 seniors have been walking directly into vaccination centres each day to receive their shots.

The vaccination rate is about 76 per cent for the 45-59 age group and 69 per cent for those between 40 and 44 years old, with the vaccination drive for the younger age group having started about a month ago.

Those between 12 and 39 years old started receiving their vaccinations about a week ago. Mr Ong said the vaccination rate for this age group is currently at 29 per cent.

"The response of students continues to be very encouraging. So far, 82 per cent of students have either received their first dose or already booked an appointment," he said.

Mr Ong added that the imperative now is to boost nationwide vaccinations. Singapore has administered 47,000 doses a day over the past two weeks, up from 40,000 doses each day last month.

"We have the capacity to do more and are only constrained by supplies, so we are doing our best to confirm the delivery of more vaccines early.

"It is not easy because vaccines are a scarce resource and highly demanded by many countries around the world. But if we are successful, by July, we will be able to go beyond the current rate of 47,000 doses per day and open up many more bookings," he said.

The minister also called on employers to help facilitate their employees' vaccinations, by giving them time off work to get inoculated, as well as time to recover should they suffer from side effects such as fever.

"After all, a workforce with good vaccination is also a stable workforce, and that is good for your business," he said.

 

[jw5]

from straitstimes.com:

Cautious reopening will give S'pore time to get more people vaccinated: Covid-19 task force​

SINGAPORE - The cautious approach to reopening is to allow the authorities to "buy time" so more people can be vaccinated, said the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19 on Friday (Jun 18).

For example, the authorities have limited dining in to a maximum of two people a group from next Monday, instead of five people at the same table as announced earlier.

The aim is to increase this limit to five people in mid-July, barring a superspreader event or another big cluster emerging.

Explaining the need for a calibrated approach, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said the task force had received a "whole range of feedback and views" on how to proceed, which fall mainly into two schools of thought.

The first is that the Government should hold off further reopening until a much later date, when Singapore is able to have zero or near-zero Covid-19 cases for many days.

"But this is, in fact, very hard to achieve, and may not even be possible to do given how transmissible the Delta variant is. And if we were to take this approach, it would mean we have restrictive measures in place for many months, which will cause many businesses to fold.

"So that's not a very realistic option," said Mr Wong.

He added that with this approach, Singapore would have to constantly move from open to close.

"I don't think that's a sustainable position, and there may not be a need for us to do that, especially as our vaccination rates continue to go up and provide protection to everyone in Singapore."

The second approach focuses on the argument that Covid-19 is going to be endemic, and that the country's infection rates are very low compared with many other places that have relaxed more restrictions.


Mr Wong said those who think this way would also point to how Singapore has vaccines, arguing that the authorities should "just proceed and to continue to ease up and relax measures and not overreact to each and every new cluster".

"I can understand the sentiments behind this and, indeed, we do want to proceed with our reopening more confidently. But our vaccination rates currently are still not high enough to provide sufficient protection."

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that without higher vaccination rates, the infection numbers will still matter because "high infections can lead to more severe illnesses, especially among those who are more vulnerable".

"By taking a more cautious approach with reopening, we buy time to get more people vaccinated. So the imperative now is to boost vaccination," he added.

Taking all these factors into account, Mr Wong said the task force decided to tread a "very careful path forward based on a rigorous assessment of our current situation" in announcing a progressive reopening.

"We are taking a more calibrated, more careful approach - not swinging to either extreme of shutting down, restricting very tightly all the different activities, nor opening up too recklessly, but taking a more careful approach of allowing some resumption of activities, still with appropriate safeguards and precautions in place, and buy us time for our vaccination rates to go up," he added.

Mr Ong, who like Mr Wong is a co-chair of the task force, had noted at the June 10 press conference that as Covid-19 becomes endemic here, the authorities would shift from just focusing on the number of cases reported each day when deciding measures.

Among other things, the authorities would also look at the condition of those infected - for instance, how many are in intensive care units or need supplemental oxygen.

Asked about the vaccination targets, Mr Wong said that there are two key milestones: 50 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated, which he believes can be done by August or so, and 75 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated at a later date.

The task force will progressively ease restrictions both within Singapore and at its borders based on these two milestones, he added.

"If our vaccine supplies come in earlier, and we hope they will, we will do everything we can to do so, then we can ramp up and perhaps achieve these milestones earlier," said Mr Wong.

Commenting on the measures in a Facebook post, President Halimah Yacob said: “I hope that Singaporeans realise that a calibrated approach is essential – while we push on with our plans to improve testing and contact-tracing capabilities and ramp up vaccinations, we must still be nimble enough to respond to the waves of transmissions that may occur.”

 

[jw5]

from straitstimes.com:

First Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to be given in S'pore on Friday afternoon, 2 weeks' wait for others​

SINGAPORE - The first of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccinations were administered at some private clinics on Friday afternoon (June 18), following the authorities' approval of 24 private healthcare clinics to draw on the Government's existing stock of the vaccine.

As not all the clinics have received the vials yet, many have turned away walk-in requests from the public or placed them on registration wait lists. According to some clinics approached by The Straits Times, the waiting time for those who register successfully could be two weeks or more.

Several clinics told ST they have been inundated with calls since the Ministry of Health's (MOH) announcement on Wednesday on the 24 selected providers.

Chinatown Wellness Clinic administered around 10 of the 200 vaccine doses it received early on Friday, to mostly Pioneer Generation citizens, and those who cannot take the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for medical reasons.

Among the other clinics ready to administer the first jabs on Friday is the Rophi Clinic and HeartlandHealth's Bedok South outlet.

A spokesman for Rophi Clinic said it has received "thousands of sign-ups who have registered their interest, but all slots are booked". It gave out 20 jabs on Friday.

The Rophi Clinic spokesman said that vaccination will be conducted on non-clinic days to segregate those receiving vaccines from regular patients. The clinic is encouraging individuals to make bookings online instead of walking in to the clinic.

HeartlandHealth's Bedok South outlet received 200 vials, and so have Icon Cancer Centre and Pinnacle Family Clinic.

HeartlandHealth received the vials at its three other approved clinics by noon, and started administering jabs at its Bedok South clinic later on Friday. "We will screen every patient’s eligibility and suitability to receive the vaccines before we administer them," said a spokesman.

A spokesman for Icon Cancer Centre said it has received "close to 1,000 expressions of interest".

Those receiving their Sinovac jabs at its Farrer Park clinic will be segregated from their regular patients, and placed in a separate area for observation. Priority will be given to patients who cannot take the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for medical reasons.

Pinnacle Family Clinic's resident physician, Dr Ho Kok On, said the clinic will start vaccinations only next Monday. It needs time to set up an observation area for those who have just been vaccinated. At least 480 patients have left their contact details with the clinic since Friday morning.

People queueing to leave their contact details inside Pinnacle Family Clinic (Pasir Ris) on June 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

People queueing at HeartlandHealth's Bedok South outlet on June 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY


On Friday morning, there was a queue of about 10 people outside Little Cross Family Clinic in Tampines Street 91 making inquiries about the vaccine. They were told to send their details to a WhatsApp number so they can be contacted when the vaccines are available, as the clinic has not received them yet.

Part-time administrator Phuah C.K., was among those making inquiries. "I fear the side effects of other vaccines," said the 72-year-old, who has a medical history of hypertension, high cholesterol, liver cirrhosis and other problems. "So far I haven't seen many reports about the side effects of the Sinovac vaccine."

Similarly, Ms Sherry Cheong, 44, was present with her father Cheong Poo Fon, 72, who has a severe allergy to aspirin. She decided to go to the clinic directly as the phone lines were engaged all of Thursday.

She hoped he could get vaccinated as soon as possible. "My dad is still working as a hawker and it's pretty dangerous for him to be exposed, so the family is worried," said Ms Cheong. "I feel they should prioritise older individuals first, over the young ones, depending on who needs it first."

People inquiring about the Sinovac vaccine outside Little Cross Family Clinic at Block 929 Tampines Street 91 on June 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

People who are interested in the vaccine are asked to send in their details to a WhatsApp number on a notice pasted outside Little Cross Family Clinic. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI


Others who have attempted to book a vaccination slot include a 63-year-old woman who wanted to be known only as Madam Chan.

Self-employed Madam Chan called Elisa Koh Clinic & Surgery For Women, located at Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Centre, as it offered one of the cheapest prices for the vaccine at $10.70, and it is relatively close to her home.

The charge for Sinovac's vaccine by the 24 approved providers ranges from $10 to $25.

MOH had earlier said that as the doses are being provided to the institutions for free, they should not charge people anything other than a vaccination administration fee, which is inclusive of consultation and a 7 per cent goods and services tax.

Rophi Clinic gave out 20 jabs on June 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI


However, Madam Chan was told to wait for more details, as the clinic had not started its vaccine roll-out yet.

She said that she was not intending to get vaccinated initially, as she felt she could deal with the risks by taking other precautions, such as going out less often and exercising regularly.

But she has since chosen to get the Sinovac jab, as "it is a traditional vaccine, just like the ones we took when we were children, so I feel more comfortable taking it".

"Now that the situation has taken a turn for the worse, I felt that I should get the vaccine to protect myself and others around me," she said.

Among those who were successfully vaccinated on Friday evening was Mr James Ng, 31, and his parents Andy Ng, 61, and Joyce Yap, 61, who got their jabs at HeartlandHealth’s Bedok South clinic.

Mr Ng said he signed up online for their slots to get vaccinated on Thursday evening, and got confirmation for their slots after midnight.

“I trust China products and technology over the mRNA technology that’s in the other vaccines,” he said.

 

[jw5]

Change in DORSCON announced: