No Hospital Visits Allowed From 5 Aug To Reduce Likelihood Of Covid-19 Transmission
The number of active clusters in Singapore has quadrupled over the last 2 weeks, with 2 new ones this week linked to hospitals.
S’pore Now Has 100 Covid-19 Clusters Including Changi General Hospital Comprising 3 Cases
In light of this, the Health Ministry announced on Wednesday (4 Aug) that it will be tightening visitation measures at hospitals.
From 5-18 Aug, all visits will be suspended to reduce potential transmission in hospitals with the exception of selected groups.
No hospital visits due to rise in community cases
On Wednesday (4 Aug), the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that visitors will not be allowed in hospital wards from 5-18 Aug.
This comes after Covid-19 clusters emerged earlier this week at Changi General Hospital and Yishun Community Hospital.
S’pore Now Has 83 Active Clusters, Including Yishun Community Hospital & Westlite Mandai
The restrictions will act as an interim measure to reduce the likelihood of potential transmission in hospitals.
MOH to grant exceptions for selected groups of patients
However, MOH will grant case-by-case exceptions for several groups of patients:
- Patients who turned very ill
- Paediatric patients
- Birthing/post-partum mothers
- Patients requiring additional care support from caregivers
Patients’ family members who are receiving caregiver training to care for their loved ones may also be permitted to enter.
Nevertheless, there are certain rules that such visitors must abide by.
For example, only 1 of such visitors is allowed per day. They may stay for a maximum of 30 minutes by the patient’s bed.
Extremely ill patients may receive up to 5 pre-designated visitors, with a maximum of 2 visitors at the patient’s bedside at any one time. Similarly, they must also adhere to the 30-minutes visitation time.
Individuals undergoing caregiver training will be allowed to stay for more than 30 minutes.
However, they must test negative on a supervised ART before entering. Each test is only be valid for 24 hours.
Visitors must have masks on at all times
MOH added that all visitors must have their face masks on at all times and should refrain from consuming food and drinks in inpatient wards.
Masks donned by them must also have good filtration capability, which includes reusable masks made of 2 layers of fabrics and surgical masks.
Visit MOH’s website here for the full list of measures.
MOH seeks understanding and cooperation
While the new restrictions will inconvenience many people, we hope they understand that this is ultimately done for everyone’s safety.
Hopefully, this will help to reduce the number of clusters and cases in Singapore.
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