Singapore preparing for likely surge in Omicron infections

Singapore is likely to see a "significant wave" of Covid-19 cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant, and will roll out measures to protect the healthcare system and minimise disruptions to normal activities.

This is especially since a significant proportion of the workforce may come down with the virus, causing service disruptions from time to time, said Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong yesterday.

As part of these new measures, visits to hospital wards and residential care homes will be suspended from next Monday until Feb 20 to protect seniors and healthcare workers. Concessions will be made for certain groups of patients, such as those who are critically ill.

Singapore will also expand the national booster programme to children aged 12 to 17, and allow more low-risk patients - including those aged five to 11 - to recover at home.

The maximum isolation period for fully vaccinated individuals and children under 12 will also be shortened from 10 to seven days.

Existing safe management measures, such as dining in groups of five, will be maintained through the Chinese New Year festive period to lower the risk of virus transmission.

The authorities have confirmed that the Omicron variant now accounts for about 70 per cent of daily cases. But this figure could be closer to 90 per cent in reality, said Mr Gan, who is one of three co-chairs of the multi-ministerial task force tackling the pandemic.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who is one of the task force's other two co-chairs along with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, said it is very likely that the Omicron peak will exceed the previous peak from the Delta variant - and possibly hit 20,000 to 25,000 cases a day.

But he stressed that the focus should not be on headline infection numbers, but on the number of people who are severely ill and who need hospital or intensive care.

"And in that regard, we are hopeful that we can ride through this Omicron wave without having to tighten our measures," he said.

Testing requirements will be eased for travellers arriving on vaccinated travel lane flights from Monday, as imported cases form a shrinking proportion of Singapore's total cases.

Mr Ong also reiterated the importance of vaccination, stressing that unvaccinated people have a disproportionately large impact on the healthcare system if they contract Covid-19.

He acknowledged that Delta is more severe than Omicron, with studies having shown that Omicron infections are much less severe for those who have been vaccinated, received their booster shots, or recovered from natural infection. "But we are not so sure that the same is true for individuals who are unvaccinated and Covid-naive."

Asked what Singapore would do when the country hits the peak of the Omicron wave, the ministers replied that the country would make decisions based on the situation then.

Mr Ong said Singapore is using the situation in Britain, South Africa and the United States as reference points, and that the Omicron wave in these countries took four to six weeks to peak.

"Omicron is so transmissible, so when the numbers are so huge, at some point you've run out of people to infect and then you will start to come down," he added. But he also pointed out that every country is different, and that some have had many prior infections or lower vaccination levels than Singapore.

"There are certain expectations that we have a plan - we plan beforehand that on this day, this time, we will do this or that based on certain metrics," Mr Ong said.

"But actually we are in a fog of war... Every variant is different and behaves differently, and you just have to go through it, judge the situation and make decisions along the way."