Catch the latest news video reports on The Big Story, The Straits Times' weekday online news programme.

Singapore is bracing itself for an Omicron wave by boosting hospital and testing capacities, so that the nation can ride the next Covid-19 surge even as reopening plans continue.

While the country has not detected any community transmission of the Omicron variant yet, it is only a matter of time before this happens, said Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong on Tuesday (Dec 14).

Given the increased transmissibility of the new variant, vaccination-differentiated measures will be expanded to more places from Feb 1.

To gear up for the next surge, Singapore is making plans to increase its intensive care unit (ICU) capacity to 500 beds, said director of medical services Kenneth Mak. It is studying whether infrastructure upgrading needs to be done in public hospitals to support this, he added.

ICU bed capacity stood at around 280 beds in late October, at the peak of Singapore's Delta wave, with hospitals on standby to increase this to 350 beds if necessary.

Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore weighs in on these developments.

And don't miss Insight, a new segment on The Big Story. On Tuesday's show, journalist Michelle Ng explains why millennials in Singapore are facing tough choices in order to get on the property ladder.