Singapore, Mar 5 (PTI) Seven Singaporean parliamentarians, including an Indian origin-minister, have been diagnosed with coronavirus due to which they all have skipped an important ongoing parliament debate on the budget.

Singapore has been witnessing a surge in the number of coronavirus cases even when such infections in several other parts of the world have drastically come down. Till Saturday, Singapore recorded 803,389 coronavirus cases and 1,067 fatalities.

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Indranee Rajah, who is a minister in the Prime Minister's office and also the second minister for Finance and National Development, was among the political leaders who had to miss the parliament debate on budget and other important events.

Indranee took an antigen rapid test (ART) on Thursday afternoon as two other members of her household had Covid-19, and tested positive.

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She said in a Facebook post on Friday: "Thankfully symptoms are mild. Very glad that I am fully vaccinated with both shots and booster".

Indranee also had to miss the launch of the Sakura floral display at Gardens by the Bay on Friday (March 4) morning due to her infection, according to a report by The Straits Times on Saturday.

"Hope to be back in Parliament next week for the second reading of the Supply Bills," she added.

Sylvia Lim, Chairman of the opposition Workers' Party (WP) posted a photo of her positive ART on Friday, after self-isolating for several days.

"After several days of feeling lousy, it's confirmed - I have it!" the Aljunied GRC MP wrote, adding that she was sorry to miss several days of the debate but would follow the live broadcast of proceedings on YouTube.

The MPs' infections come amid a surge in COVID-19 cases here, fuelled by the Omicron variant.

Apart from Minister Indranee, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan said on Tuesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 after his seven-year-old daughter caught the virus.

In response to queries about what plans are in place should a COVID-19 cluster emerge in the House, the Office of the Clerk of Parliament said safe management measures and precautions have been put in place so that parliamentary proceedings can continue.

These measures include being masked at all times when not speaking in the Chamber, maintaining safe distancing and keeping to split team arrangements, as well as strictly adhering to the appropriate testing regimes, it said.

MPs are spread out across the Chamber and also in the Speakers' Gallery and Press Gallery.

The Office added that MPs have to self-test before coming to parliament house to attend sittings.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How and Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth Eric Chua have recovered from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Singapore reported 17,564 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Friday, comprising 17,406 local and 158 imported infections.

There were 18 fatalities, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 1,067.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)