Catch the latest news video reports on The Big Story, The Straits Times' weekday online news programme.
Coverage for Covid-19 vaccination complications that result in hospitalisation under Integrated Shield Plans (IP) will be extended until Dec 31.
This will apply to all IP policyholders who receive Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme, the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA) said on Monday (Jan 17).
Those who received vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation under its Emergency Use Listing Procedure and administered in Singapore under the Health Sciences Authority's Special Access Route will also be covered.
Separately, an online survey of 1,000 people, commissioned by The Straits Times and conducted by market research firm Milieu Insight, found that 28 per cent of respondents are of the view that life will never return to exactly the way it was before the pandemic.
Nine per cent said they believed life in Singapore in 2022 would return to the way it was before the pandemic, while 32 per cent believed this would happen in 2023.
Meanwhile, 54 per cent of the respondents believe that the current level of Covid-19 restrictions will persist through this year, as the country navigates its way towards an endemic state. Another 21 per cent said there are likely to be more restrictions than last year.
Assistant Professor Hannah Clapham from the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health weighs in on the survey findings.
In other local headlines, new private home sales in December 2021 slumped 58 per cent from November.
And year on year, take-up was down 46.6 per cent, compared with December 2020, according to the latest Urban Redevelopment Authority figures.
Housing correspondent Michelle Ng shares more on the possible reasons for the slump, including the property cooling measures that kicked in the second half of December.
Also on the show, senior correspondent Zaihan Mohamed Yusof talks about the issue of people sleeping rough in Singapore.
