World News | Singaporean Lifestyle Getting Back to Pre-COVID Days

Singapore, Mar 19 (PTI) Singapore's lifestyle is getting back to pre-COVID days even as hospitals are still stressed by non-coronavirus cases, according to media reports.

Daily coronavirus infections are still around 10,000 cases.

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Hospitals are “still very busy and under stress” even though the Omicron wave is subsiding, and this is due to a large number of non-COVID-related emergency department admissions, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post on Friday on the COVID-19 situation.

Among religious places, Hindu temples will remove barricades used to segregate devotees into zones set as a safe management measures (SMM), according to a report by The Straits Times.

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For the first time in about two years on Friday, Muslims at mosques no longer had to be spaced apart during congregational prayers.

Given how Singapore's COVID-19 situation has come under control, rules have been eased to allow worshippers to perform their Friday prayers side by side - a departure from the gaps they had to observe from one another since 2020.

SMMs for religious activities were loosened on Tuesday, eliminating the need for safe distancing between individuals or groups where people keep their masks on.

The 1,000-person cap on activities such as worship services was also lifted, as long as the 50 per cent venue capacity limit is adhered to, reported the broadsheet.

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) has said that mosques will open up more spaces, and will announce more details in the coming weeks.

On Friday, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli told reporters during a visit to the Kampung Siglap Mosque that the community can look forward to more mosque activities to return during the fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on April 2.

"After making adjustments for the safe management measures for the last two years, where our congregants had to maintain safe distancing during our prayers... we are very happy and relieved that we can now pray shoulder to shoulder," he said.

Church Of Our Saviour in Queenstown said on Facebook that there is no need to book seats for services, though worshippers will still need to verify their vaccination status to enter the church.

The Hope Singapore church near the Bugis area also said on Facebook that worshippers no longer need to be segregated into zones, so more people can be accommodated. More tickets will also be available for its children's church, HopeKids.

"For some of our venues, because of the (previous) limit of 50 for kids' services, some groups of children could only come to church once in two weeks on a rotational basis. Now, with this new SMM, they can attend weekly," said the church.

Meanwhile, all hospital staff members will no longer be required to undergo a mandatory twice-weekly rostered routine test for COVID-19 from March 21 onwards.

Instead, those who are unwell with mild or severe symptoms should “self-test and follow the relevant national-level health protocols if they test positive,” a Ministry of Health circular said this week.

A MOH memo issued on Thursday to the senior management of public and private hospitals as well as national specialty centres said that the policy changes will affect "all hospital inpatient and outpatient staff, as well as staff providing essential services in these settings".

"Those who test positive for COVID-19 “should not have to produce a medical certificate” as well, TODAY newspaper quoted the Memo.

The MOH said in the circular that the high vaccination rates among hospital workers “and their commitment to strict safe management measures” have minimised the impact of COVID-19 on both healthcare workers and the system.

“As the COVID-19 situation is stabilising, and in line with the pivot to live with COVID-19, the MOH will be rationalising COVID-19 measures, with the intent to relieve some of the work demands on our healthcare staff.”

Several medical professionals contacted by TODAY welcomed the change in policy and said that it was about time.

The change in policy is “kind of overdue”, given the extensive vaccination coverage in Singapore and that the Omicron strain of the coronavirus is less virulent, TODAY quoted Dr Chuang Hsuan-Hung, a cardiologist at Gleneagles Hospital.

"It's very tiring to keep swabbing our nose. Some (people) swab deep, some of them swab outside only... So you don't know how accurate the results will be, said Ha Xiao Hui, a nurse at a leading hospital here.

"I have colleagues who got a negative result from an antigen rapid test, but a follow-up with a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test showed a positive," Ha said.

Dr Desmond Wai, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Mount Elizabeth, said that doing away with the tests on people on COVID-19 will also save on resources.

This is because each test costs between 30 to 40 Singapore dollar (USD 22 to 29) at the hospital where he works, and involves a fair bit of manpower.

In any case, he said that aside from all staff members being fully vaccinated, healthcare workers also wear N95 masks — which have better filtration and leakage than ordinary masks — and don personal protective equipment when carrying out procedures on patients.

"So, the risk of transmission to patients is very low.

"COVID-19 has changed a lot over the past two years and it is much less lethal. Now, everything is short — short incubation, short recovery and short symptoms. Therefore, it is time that we review our policy accordingly and remove those non-cost-effective items... and save it for other things," Dr Wai said.

Singapore reported 10,594 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including 159 imported infections or people who arrived here.

There were nine fatalities reported on Friday, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 1,191.

Singapore has recorded 996,914 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, 95 per cent of Singapore's eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen under the national vaccination programme.

About 70 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots, according to a Channel News Asia report.

(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)