SINGAPORE - In-person visits to all hospital wards and residential care homes will resume from next Monday (April 4).
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday that this comes as the daily number of local Covid-19 cases has fallen, and the situation in hospitals and homes is starting to improve.
In-person visits are allowed only for fully vaccinated visitors, although a concession will be made for those who are medically ineligible for Covid-19 vaccination. They are encouraged to self-test before their visit, but do not need to show proof of a negative test result to enter the ward or home, MOH said.
Visitors who are not fully vaccinated are allowed under exceptional cases, but must show a negative antigen rapid test (ART) result taken at MOH-approved Covid-19 test providers - such as combined test centres and quick test centres - within 24 hours of their visit. They are exempted from this if they have recovered from Covid-19 within 180 days of their visit.
Patients and residents must also be fully vaccinated or ineligible for vaccination in order to be allowed in-person visits, unless under exceptional circumstances, said the ministry.
“As hospitals and homes are settings with vulnerable patients/residents, visitors will have to comply with the safe management measures to better protect the patient/resident,” it said.
MOH had suspended visits to hospitals and residential care homes since Jan 24 to protect patients and healthcare workers as the city state dealt with the Omicron wave.
From next Monday, each hospital patient will be allowed to register up to two visitors for each admission, while patients who are critically ill will be allowed five registered visitors.
Two visitors will be allowed at the bedside at any one time to prevent crowding in the hospital wards, said MOH. Visitors who are approved to stay beyond the visiting hours, such as caregivers, will need to show proof of a valid ART result done within the last 24 hours.
Visitors who are fully vaccinated or medically ineligible for vaccination can take an unsupervised self-administered ART and present a time-stamped photo of the ART result and photo ID for verification.
“Visitors are reminded not to eat or drink in the hospital wards or use the patients’ toilets in the wards. They should also avoid sitting on patients’ beds,” it added.
In residential care homes, each fully vaccinated resident will be allowed up to four designated visitors, with one visitor allowed per 30-minute visit. Visits may be suspended if a home is managing active Covid-19 cases, said the ministry.
In September last year, visits to hospitals and residential care homes were suspended after a spike in Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Delta variant. The visits were allowed to resume on Nov 22, before they were paused again in January.
The Covid-19 week-on-week infection ratio has remained below one for the past four weeks, and stood at 0.66 on Wednesday.
The week-on-week infection ratio refers to the ratio of community cases in the past week, compared with the week before. A ratio of less than one indicates that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is decreasing.
