Serious Many Pappys don't like OngYK..not Team player.

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A better term,may be elderly gentleman.

It may be better but not funnier.

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

1 d ·

The team from Ng Teng Fong General Hospital comprising medical staff and operations personnel posed for a group photo after a successful full dress rehearsal at Big Box Community Care Facility.

More than 100 personnel provided on-site 24/7 clinical support.

Photo: Ng Teng Fong General Hospital

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

1 d ·

A lab assistant preparing the antigen rapid test device with swab specimen for analysis.

Photo: Health Promotion Board

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

1 d ·

A tele-consultation session at Sunshine Welfare Action Mission

Photo: SWAMI Home Help

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

2 d ·

A patient being swabbed at Mission Medical Clinic, one of the clinics under the SASH programme

Photo: Agency for Integrated Care

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

2 d ·

Changi General Hospital staff logging cases at a dormitory

Photo: Changi General Hospital

 

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Ong Ye Kung​

2 d ·

Working behind the scenes, laboratory colleagues provided essential information and support for our COVID-19 response.

Photo: Ng Teng Fong General Hospital

 

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OYK wants you to have a great and healthy year ahead.

Ong Ye Kung​

1 h ·
2022 has been an extraordinary year.
Here are some significant moments which stood out for me:

We weathered three COVID-19 infection waves (BA.2, BA.5, XBB); over 90% of our population got vaccinated; we regained normalcy; over 100k individuals and teams were recognised for their efforts combating the pandemic.

The Singapore population aged another year; we developed #HealthierSG as a long-term strategy; Parliament unanimously supported it.

Globally, Russia attacked Ukraine; Queen Elizabeth passed away; the world population hit 8 billion; inflation rose; Elon Musk bought Twitter; and Argentina won the World Cup.
I hope the year is as memorable for you as it is for me. Have a great and healthy year ahead.

 

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OYK recommends healthier beverages.

Ong Ye Kung​

27 m ·
Is getting healthier your New Year's resolution? We've made it easier to choose healthier beverages with Nutri-Grade! #HealthierSG

 

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OYK had his first lo hei of the year.

Ong Ye Kung​

13 h ·
Had the first Lo Hei of the year with Sembawang Central’s senior citizens. This is an event put together by a group of kind business owners every year but we took a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.
This year, we included many seniors whose homes we have visited and found that they were living on their own. Community volunteers will do our part to find ways to keep them engaged and age actively. A celebration like this gives them the opportunity to find friends, mingle, have some fun, delightful food and entertainment.
新年快乐 everyone!
#HappyCNY #OKwithOYK
#CareForSeniors
#MakeSembawangSpecial

 

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OYK enjoys lion dance.

 

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OYK poses with an unmasked man with mustache.

 

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Many people take photos of OYK.

 

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OYK sings a song.

 

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OYK prepared a healthy meal.

Ong Ye Kung​

7 h ·
Back to school! Putting together a healthy meal with my young friends, Elroy and Fathia.

#HealthierSG

 

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from straitstimes.com:

Hawkers, postmen, shopkeepers to keep an eye on the elderly in Cheng San-Seletar​

Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung (centre) and Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Nadia Ahmad Samdin (background) speaking to stallholders at Chong Boon Market & Food Centre on Sunday. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

Anjali Raguraman
Consumer Correspondent
UPDATED

8 JAN 2023, 9:33 PM SGT

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SINGAPORE – Elderly and vulnerable residents in the Cheng San-Seletar neighbourhood will have a closer eye kept on them by a network of hawkers, postmen and shopkeepers, among others.
These are the familiar faces in the neighbourhood who can alert Cheng San Community Club when they notice something amiss, such as a resident’s overflowing letter box or regular patrons missing their usual coffee sessions.
Speaking at a community visit on Sunday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that given Singapore’s ageing population, the welfare of seniors is a priority for the Government and the Ministry of Health.

“With community assets, plus the ground troops like the different volunteers and agencies working the ground, I hope we can reach out to as many seniors as possible,” said Mr Ong. “Maybe if they are successful, we can scale them up.”
About 20 hawker stalls at Chong Boon Market & Food Centre are participating in a pilot programme where the hawkers will be trained by Touch Community Services to keep a lookout for regular elderly patrons showing signs of distress or who do not show up for days.
A dementia care workshop will also be organised for volunteers and organisations in the area, to teach them about the signs and symptoms of those with dementia or in mental distress.


And four more Housing Board blocks with a higher proportion of elderly residents will be added to the existing three blocks monitored by SingPost postmen.


This follows a successful three-month pilot programme from September to November 2022, during which postmen monitored letter boxes for irregularities in mail collection patterns among residents, especially when mail was not collected for a long time. While the postmen found some anomalies, these turned out to be false alarms.
Postmen, shopkeepers or others can alert Cheng San Community Club to any anomalies or irregularities. Grassroots volunteers will then be activated to visit the residents and check on them.
Mr Lee Sian Hock, 56, owner of Guan Hock Coffee Stall at Chong Boon Market & Food Centre, is among the hawkers and shop owners who have volunteered to receive training in the pilot programme.
“(The initiative) is good – I’ll know how to identify seniors who need help because, for now, I only know my regulars,” said Mr Lee, who has worked in the area for 30 years. “I will try to help however I can.”
Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin, the MP for Cheng San-Seletar ward, who launched the Care Network-Living Well initiative in December 2021 to equip the community with awareness about mental health issues, said such initiatives are about having more eyes and ears on the ground.
She noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on seniors, causing some of them to feel more withdrawn and afraid to step out of their homes, with some not knowing who to reach out to for help.
“A lot of the organisations like the ageing centres are in physical spaces, but we want to try to draw as many seniors out as possible and go down to the nodes where they are... like with the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) mobile van,” Ms Nadia said.
She was referring to a plan by Cheng San Community Club and TCM clinic Thong Chai Medical Institution to roll out a minibus clinic in March to visit residents in public and private estates once every two weeks.

Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung (right) and Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Nadia Ahmad Samdin (centre) with SingPost inspector of post Mohammad Sophian Kadir. SingPost postmen will be monitoring the letterboxes of four more blocks for irregularities in collection patterns. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

This allows residents to get basic TCM consultations and advice on well-being from certified TCM physicians at their doorsteps. Consultations are free, but residents can offer a donation if they wish.
Mr Ong said: “We don’t want to only see (seniors) when they’re sick... With an active ageing lifestyle where you eat the right things; sleep the right way; have friends, care and love, you can stay healthy for as long as possible.”

 

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from straitstimes.com:

Singapore has not seen surge in Covid-19 cases from travellers from China: Ong Ye Kung​

In the last four weeks of 2022, about 200 travellers from China were detected to have Covid-19 – or less than 5 per cent of all imported cases in that period. PHOTO: AFP

Salma Khalik
Senior Health Correspondent
UPDATED

10 JAN 2023, 12:31 AM SGT

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SINGAPORE – There has been no surge in infections here on account of travellers from China, and Singapore’s current Covid-19 measures are working and are appropriate, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday. The Republic, however, will not be complacent and continues to monitor the situation.
Keeping infections in check is the low number of visitors from China and the fact that no new, more virulent variant has emerged there. Singapore’s highly vaccinated population has also helped.
The 38 weekly flights from China now bring in 700 to 1,000 travellers a day, which is less than 10 per cent of the pre-Covid-19 number, Mr Ong said in a ministerial statement in Parliament. Any increase in flights will be carefully calibrated, he added.

In the last four weeks of 2022, about 200 travellers from China were detected to have Covid-19 – or less than 5 per cent of all imported cases in that period. In contrast, Asean countries accounted for half of the imported cases here, with 15 per cent from the rest of Asia, 11 per cent from Europe and 9 per cent from the Middle East, said Mr Ong.
Imported cases make up only 5 per cent to 10 per cent of all infections. Of the seven imported cases that led to severe illness, only one was from China. These cases mainly comprised returning Singaporeans.
Furthermore, no new variants have emerged in China, although given China’s population of 1.4 billion, there remain risks and uncertainties.


New variants can emerge from anywhere in the world, not just China, said Mr Ong. Already, more than 650 Omicron sub-variants have been identified, he said, “so we cannot jump at every sub-variant, no matter how sexy the name sounds”.


But he also warned: “We cannot be complacent. The measures may work now, but not permanently. We will continually assess the situation and, if need be, make adjustments or implement new measures... Our decisions must be based on science, on evidence and on data.”
Singapore has never totally dismantled its pandemic measures, said Mr Ong. Incoming travellers need to be fully vaccinated based on World Health Organisation standards or produce a negative pre-departure test.
This is neither the tightest nor the most liberal of border measures among countries, but somewhere in between, he said.

If Singapore were to impose stricter measures on travellers from China, should it do the same to travellers from countries that contribute to more infections and severe cases, he asked.
“How will other countries treat travellers from Singapore when we encounter another infection wave?” he said. “New infection waves are bound to start in Singapore from time to time, over and over again, as variants with immune escape emerge, protection from vaccines and previous infections wane, and re-infections increase.”
Most Singapore residents have been vaccinated or have recovered from mild infections, so the population has developed strong hybrid immunity, said Mr Ong.


He said: “Today, the probability of Covid-19 infections leading to severe illnesses or deaths for our population has become very low – comparable to influenza or pneumococcal infections.”
For instance, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units was in the single digit over the past 30 days, although there were a few deaths, he noted.
Based on the severity rate today, the number of annual deaths caused by Covid-19 infections “is similar to that caused by influenza infections”, he said.
“Hence, with extensive vaccination coverage, we can treat Covid-19 as an endemic disease. Like influenza, top-line infection numbers should no longer be our preoccupation.”

Nevertheless, he warned that things could change as the pandemic is not over.
“What worries us most now is the emergence of a new, unknown and more dangerous variant of concern,” he said.
“It may possess worrying characteristics – escape vaccine protection, be more infectious and lead to more severe cases, which would be very bad news. A nightmare variant can knock us back to almost square one.”
Should that happen, Singapore may need to reinstate measures, such as strict border controls, quarantine for travellers and social restrictions like limits on group sizes, until a new and effective vaccine is developed.

 

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from straitstimes.com:

S’pore taking moderate approach to Covid-19 border measures​

Imported infections today account for between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of all Covid-19 cases detected in Singapore. ST FILE PHOTO

Zhaki Abdullah
UPDATED

9 JAN 2023, 9:33 PM SGT

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SINGAPORE – While other nations have taken a wide variety of approaches to their Covid-19-related border measures, Singapore is taking the middle road and is not discriminating against any country as severe cases can originate anywhere, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.
Delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament, Mr Ong noted that Singapore currently requires that incoming travellers either be fully vaccinated – according to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition – or take a pre-departure test if not fully vaccinated.
Spain recently imposed similar requirements on travellers from China, he noted.

Countries such as Australia, India and the United States have imposed a blanket pre-departure test requirement on all travellers from China.
But others, including most countries in Asean and the Middle East, have not imposed any border measures.
Singapore’s approach is “neither the tightest nor the most liberal, but somewhere in between”, said Mr Ong.


These measures, in addition to controls on the number of travellers, have ensured few severe cases coming from China, even as the coronavirus is spreading widely there, he said.


Imported infections today account for between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of all Covid-19 cases detected here, Mr Ong said.
Still, the measures in use may not work forever, he noted.
“We will continually assess the situation and, if need be, make adjustments or implement new measures,” he said, adding that the Republic’s decisions would be based on “science, evidence and data”.

The main concern now is that with Covid-19 continuing to spread internationally, there is a greater chance that a new variant of concern may emerge from anywhere, Mr Ong said.
Such a variant could escape vaccine protection, as well as be more infectious and lead to more severe cases, knocking Singapore “almost back to square one”, he said.
This may lead to the Republic needing to reinstate measures such as strict border controls and quarantine for travellers, as well as limits on group sizes, until such time that a new, effective vaccine is developed.
“New variants can emerge from anywhere in the world, not just China,” said Mr Ong.


While pre-departure tests on travellers from China, such as those imposed by some countries, can detect Covid-19 infections, such tests cannot detect new variants of concern.
Detecting new variants of concern requires an “effective global surveillance system”, such as the Covid-19 genomic-sequence platform run by non-profit organisation Gisaid, which Singapore actively contributes to.
Gisaid data shows that the surge in China is driven by existing variants, which are already circulating in other regions, said the minister.
“Our local sequencing efforts on infected travellers from China further support this. The majority are BA.5.2 and BF.7 strains, which have already been detected in Singapore and other countries for many months,” he said.
This is consistent with findings from the WHO’s technical advisory group on virus evolution that were released last Wednesday, he noted.
While a new, dangerous variant that evades vaccine protection emerging from China has not materialised, Singapore will continue to remain vigilant, said Mr Ong.

 

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OYK replies via video.

Ong Ye Kung​

4 h ·
Ms Ng Ling Ling, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, asked me: What do we do when we detect a new dangerous COVID variant?
Watch this video for my reply in Parliament.

 

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OYK wishes everyone Happy Pongal.

Ong Ye Kung​

8 h ·
It’s Pongal, the harvest festival celebrated mostly in South India, this weekend.
We make an effort every year in #Sembawang to observe this day with residents and volunteers.
Happy Pongal everyone. Wishing you good health and happiness.
#MakeSembawangSpecial #Pongal