SINGAPORE (May 8): All staff and residents of Singapore’s 80 nursing homes will undergo testing for the coronavirus as part of the government’s bigger goal to keep seniors safe amid the health pandemic.

This comes as seniors — defined as persons aged 60 and above — have shown to be more susceptible to the virus, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Friday. Citing recent data, he points out that one in six seniors who had contracted the coronavirus here developed severe symptoms and required intensive care.

Furthermore, 90% of the 20 Covid-19 deaths reported here have been among seniors. This is comparable to the 80% of global Covid-19 deaths that seniors make up, notes Gan at a press conference by the multi-ministry taskforce handling the pandemic.

So far, testing for all 9,000 employees of the nursing homes here has been completed, with one individual from the Ren Ci home in Ang Mo Kio testing positive. The over 30 residents traced to have had contact with this employee have tested negative.

For further precaution, all nursing home staff interacting directly with residents will stay in facilities designated within the home or move to hotels, notes Gan. He adds that some 2,600 staff are already in the process of moving into hotels.

Staff working at other residential homes funded by the Ministry of Social and Family (MSF) Development will also make similar arrangements. 700 staff working in such MSF-funded residential homes will live at on-site facilities while another 400 will move into hotels, says Minister for Social and Family Development, Desmond Lee.

Aside from this, all 16,000 nursing residents will undergo extensive testing from now till tentatively early June, stresses Gan.

“We expect that more cases will be identified within our nursing homes with this extensive testing in progress,” he says.

Beyond nursing homes, Gan emphasised the need for seniors in the community to be taken care of during this circuit breaker.

“Safe distancing does not mean social isolation for our seniors,” he says, adding that the Silver Generation Office has been supporting seniors with weak family support.

Aside from seniors, the taskforce said that it is looking into infection control measures at community care and recovery facilities. This comes as the republic reported its fourth incidence of a person working at the Singapore Expo community care facility having contracted the coronavirus on Thursday.

Gan notes that the ministry is now studying how the virus was transmitted to the staff. “We are, at the moment investigating the various positive cases to better understand how the transmission could have happened – whether it was from the patients or because of staff interaction or any other source,” he says.

“With a better understanding of how the transmission happens, that will allow us to decide what additional measures we need to put in place”.

The health ministry is also reviewing operations to identify possible gaps in the adherence to infection control measures by staff on the ground. These staff include healthcare workers, security personnel, cleaners and administrative staff.

Says MOH’s director of medical services Kenneth Mak, “we want to make sure each of them is properly trained in use of personal protective equipment and obey and respect infection control measures”.

Meanwhile, the taskforce added that it has been running focused testing particularly on sub-populations at risk, and is en route to raising testing capacity.

“We started off with about 2,900 tests per day and now we’re doing 8,000 a day. In a few weeks time we might get to 20,000 per day. And our aim is 40,000 a day,” says Lawrence Wong, National Development Minister and co-chair of the Covid-19 taskforce.

These tests will be allocated for the identification of positive cases to treat and negative cases who can return to work. It also provides a surveillance of the number of cases here, the taskforce says.

While Singaporeans count the days to the lifting of the circuit breaker on June 1, Wong cautions that life will not go back to normal immediately.

This is as more precautions such as the use of digital check-in system SafeEntry, Trace Together will have to be taken to facilitate easier contact tracing.

“By the time we get to post June 1, we will have some solutions in place to have faster contact tracing in place. So even if there’s a case that emerges, we can do much faster contact tracing [and] quickly issue quarantine orders on an electronic platform instantly”.

As such, he says a “gradual, calibrated easing” will be adopted. "Whatever the decision, whatever happens in coming days or weeks, it is clearly not the case that after June 1 everything lifted, status quo ante,” stresses Wong.

As at 12pm on Friday, Singapore reported 768 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total count here to 21,707. Of this, a vast majority comes from foreign workers living in dormitories.

Come May 12, some businesses such as selected food outlets and hairdressers will re-open their doors. But Wong urged these firms to put in place strict measures for a safe working environment before they resume operations.

"If business premises don't have necessary precautions and safeguards in place we will have to ask you stop work anyway, and there will be penalties imposed."

Wong went on to encourage residents not to be in a rush to patronise these businesses since the circuit breaker is still in place. "The easing of measures from May 12 should not be an opportunity for us to go out more frequently," he stresses.

"I know some people may not have had a haircut for sometime, but there is no need to rush and go out to have a haircut on May 12. There will be time to do so. So let's pace ourselves".

He also urged seniors to stay home as much as possible so as not to expose themselves.

“Let's also focus on doing everything we can to protect seniors because they are the most vulnerable group. If you are living with an elderly person in the same household, encourage the person not to go out, and try to run errands on their behalf."

More protection for seniors to come; Singaporeans to stay home even as some businesses resume operations on May 12

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