SINGAPORE – Singapore will have to be ready to repair some control measures, such as masking, if it had to deal with a wave of Covid-19 infections caused through an unsightly variant, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday (October 31).
This will slow down transmissions but will not unduly disrupt people’s lives here, he added.
With virtually all control measures lifted, Singapore has now virtually returned to pre-pandemic normalcy, with plenty of travel and the country once again hosting many overseas meetings and events, he noted.
However, this makes the country vulnerable, as it may be one of the first places to find a new and harmful variant, M. NGO, which is also co-chair of the multi-ministerial organization tasked with fighting Covid-19. pandemic.
“We have to be prepared, in case there is a bad wave of infection. We want to have our contingency plans,” he added.
He noted that Singapore has faced many subvariants of Omicron, and that in such situations, one would expect there to be recombinants, or variants that mix the genetics of two other variants, of existing subvariants, such as XBB, that drove the recent peak of Covid-19 infections here.
There’s no explanation for why those recombinants deserve to be more transmissible but less severe, M. NGO said.
“This is a random procedure of nature, and a new recombinant variant may simply acquire the characteristics of an original variant that leads to more severe diseases,” he added.
A key reaction to long-term waves of infection is Singapore’s vaccination plan, the minister said, stressing that it is up to older people to keep their vaccinations up to date as they are more likely to spread a severe case of covid-19.
Even in the past month, two out of every hundred sick people age 70 and older who weren’t fully vaccinated died or ended up in intensive care, he said.
On Oct. 26, Singapore approved Pfizer’s bivalent jab, which targets the original coronavirus strain and Omicron variants BA. 4 and BA. 5, for other people over the age of 12. It will be available until the end of the year.
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The country has already approved the bivalent edition of Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine, which was unveiled at nine joint testing and vaccination centers on Oct. 14.
Some 53,000 people aged 50 and older have already received Moderna’s bivalent vaccine, Mr. Ong, noting that the vaccine is expected to roll out to younger teams in the coming weeks.
He noted that the wave of infection through the XBB subvariant is obviously in decline and Singapore has been controlled to cope with the wave virtually unrestricted, as indoor masking requirements and differentiated vaccination measures have been removed.
While the Covid-19 task force was “very ready” to reimpose such measures if the scenario worsened, those plans were put on hold as the number of infections peaked and declined much earlier than expected.
Ong spoke at the 20th anniversary of personal health education provider HMI Institute, where he presented awards to 10 alumni of the institute’s course for health care personnel who highlight their work.
In his speech, he also said that for the next 3 years, Singapore will need the channeling of care aid staff as it is more of the healthcare workforce. career conversions, he said.
During the pandemic, many service sector workers, such as airline cabin crew and retailers, have taken on roles supporting physical care, which has been important to our hospitals,” he said. However, they have since returned to their old jobs. .
“This total episode demonstrates that it is conceivable for us to recruit mid-career candidates who can play a vital role in contributing to the health sector. “
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission is required for reproduction.