Safe Management Measures (SMMs), Vaccination-Differentiated SMMs, TraceTogether & SafeEntry

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1085

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 4 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Liang Eng Hwa

MP for Bukit Panjang

Question No. 2752

To ask the Minister for Health given that the COVID-19 Omicron variant virus wave has passed its peak (a) whether the Government will review the overall safe management measures; (b) whether the SafeEntry measure still serve its purpose; and (c) whether the one-metre distance requirement at eating places can be relaxed.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1085

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 4 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Lim Biow Chuan

MP for Mountbatten

Question No. 2759

To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the overall costs to businesses to maintain Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures just to cater to unvaccinated residents; and (b) whether requiring unvaccinated residents to bear their own medical costs will be sufficient deterrence to residents who choose not to be vaccinated.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1085

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 5 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Leong Mun Wai

Non-Constituency MP

Question No. 2772

To ask the Minister for Health whether the Government intends to maintain Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS) even after the borders are opened further following the scrapping of the Vaccinated Travel Lanes.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1082

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 5 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim

MP for Sengkang GRC

Question No. 2730

To ask the Minister for Health in light of the move to living with COVID-19 as an endemic disease (a) what are the medium-term plans for the relaxation of vaccination-differentiated measures; and (b) whether COVID-19 positive status will be treated differently from other endemic diseases, such as influenza or pneumonia.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1082

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 5 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Hazel Poa

Non-Constituency MP

Question No. 2727

To ask the Minister for Health with regard to COVID-19 positive cases, for the past two months (a) how many cases were detected (i) using TraceTogether and SafeEntry and (ii) through declarations by COVID-19 positive patients; and (b) which method is more effective in detecting COVID-19 positive patients.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1102

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 5 APRIL 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim

MP for Sengkang GRC

Question No. 2731

To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) to what extent is TraceTogether data still utilised for contact tracing and COVID-19 management purposes for establishments with a high volume of irregular visitors, such as malls and public attractions; and (b) whether there is any update on the timeline and milestones for the abolition of establishment-entry TraceTogether protocols, given the commencement of streamlined COVID-19 measures.

Answer

Mr Speaker Sir, may I address the PQs for oral answer No. 19 and 20 in the order paper, and also oral PQs filed by Mr Leong Mun Wai, Associate Professor Jamus Lim and Ms Hazel Poa for the sitting on 5 April please?

Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked if we will review the Safe Management Measures (SMMs), given that we have passed the peak of the Omicron wave. As the Member is aware, the relaxed rules came into effect on 29 March 2022, and we have also transitioned to a Vaccinated Traveller Framework on 1 April 2022.

This is a decisive but calibrated move. We did not declare a Freedom Day nor did we declare the pandemic to be over, as some countries did. Taking a cautious step-by-step approach has served us well throughout the pandemic and we will continue to do so.

That said, we were able to make this decisive move as we observed that the number of daily cases had been steadily declining in recent weeks. More importantly, the number of severe cases needing to be hospitalised has also declined. It is in this context that the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) assessed that further easing of our SMMs and resumption of many normal activities to be appropriate.

These relaxations will likely cause an uptick in daily cases, which we should be able to ride through without any major changes in our public health posture. Once cases subside further, we will consider further easing of the SMMs. This can include reviewing distancing rules between tables in F&B settings that Mr Liang specifically raised, and I want to assure Mr Liang that I am aware, in fact the whole MTF is aware, that 1m versus 80cm makes a huge difference to the F&B establishments. It also makes a huge difference in terms of transmission, so we have to weigh the costs and benefits. We will also review TraceTogether, SafeEntry, as well as Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS) which various Members asked about. Let me go through the three measures in turn.

On TraceTogether, and in response to Ms Hazel Poa and Associate Professor Jamus Lim, the Ministry of Health no longer rely on TraceTogether for contact tracing for the general public. Cases who self-tested positive and go on Protocol 2 do not upload their TraceTogether data, and we rely on them to do the responsible thing to inform their contacts to self-monitor. So, there is really no need to compare the data between self-reporting and TraceTogether, because having vaccinated the vast majority of our population and being determined to live with COVID-19, we have passed that stage of the pandemic where we contact trace every case.

Having said that, agencies that look after more vulnerable sectors, such as schools or pre-schools, they continue to use TraceTogether for contact tracing. Further, the aggregated statistics generated by TraceTogether and SafeEntry can give us a good idea of the settings that are more susceptible to transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

So, on the whole, the costs and benefits of TraceTogether changes as we make further progress in living with COVID-19. The MTF will therefore review its relevance and application, to stand it down when it is no longer needed, while maintaining the capability to restart it should we encounter a more dangerous variant of concern.

Now for SafeEntry and VDS, I will address them together because they are closely related because today, SafeEntry is the most convenient way to check the vaccination status of an individual entering a premise. If we decide to do away with VDS, then there is no need for SafeEntry.

As of now, VDS is still needed. Even as we know that the Omicron variant is less severe than Delta, unvaccinated or non-fully vaccinated persons are still a lot more likely to fall very ill if they are infected. As of now, we have about 3.5% of our adult population that are not fully vaccinated, and they account for over one-fifth of cases that require ICU care or die.

While the patient load at our public hospitals has eased, hospitals are still very busy. With the recent easing of SMMs, and the resumption of visitors to hospitals starting today, workload will go up for our healthcare workers. So, the more cautious and correct course of action now is to keep VDS, and not to risk having more non-fully vaccinated patients getting infected and needing hospital care and adding workload to our healthcare workers.

So, make no mistake, individuals who chose not to be vaccinated, they impose a cost, sometimes a significant one to our hospitals in terms of patient load, businesses in operating SafeEntry checks, and enforcement agencies in conducting checks. When we are sure that the situation in hospitals is stable and improving, we will review the VDS and consider if we can reduce the number of settings, or remove it completely. Then it will be a matter of individual responsibility of these non-fully-vaccinated individuals to take precautions to avoid high transmission settings, or better still, change your mind and get vaccinated.

Finally, Associate Professor Jamus Lim asked if COVID-19 can be treated like Influenza at some point, as an endemic disease. This is the objective set out by the MTF last year, and we are making good progress as a country. I should clarify however what endemicity means. It does not mean we treat COVID-19 as if it does not exist. It is in fact the opposite, because endemicity means the disease is constantly there, circulating at a rate that is more predictable and not likely to disrupt normal lives. Like Influenza which kills tens of thousands of people every year, we will need to continue to take precaution and adopt appropriate SMMs in order to manage the risk and damage from COVID-19.

We are still some way to treating COVID-19 as an endemic disease, because the virus is still circulating around the world and evolving. The virus continues to spread widely in other countries, especially amongst those whose people are not well vaccinated, leading to significant evolutionary pressure. There is therefore still a risk of it mutating into something more dangerous, into a variant of concern. So, while we have eased up the SMMs and re-opened our borders, the pandemic crisis is not over. We will have to continue to monitor the local and global situation, do our part to keep our country safe, and continue to work together to tackle whatever challenges that may come our way.