In Parliament on Monday (Apr 4), Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang) quoted Health Minister Ong Ye Kung as having said that Safe Entry is still needed to protect the 3.5 per cent of Singapore’s population who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.
He then followed this up by asking, “From an equity standpoint, does it make sense to inconvenience 96.5 per cent of the population just so that we can deter the 3.5 per cent unvaccinated from entering the premises (or venues)?
Does it really make a difference in terms of public health outcomes, or it is just a move to basically disincentivize them from going there, or is it a nudge to get them to get vaccinated?”
Mr Ong said he would answer Mr Liang “in a straightforward way.”
“Is it equitable? Actually, not quite. So many of us are doing so much to protect that 3.5 per cent.”
However, he underlined that the existing policies still protect public health outcomes because hospitals “are still not out of the woods.”
He went on to say he had just visited Ng Teng Fong Hospital that morning, and added, “They are very busy.”
Generally, Covid cases have come down and people feel safer in that they can gather together and not wear masks outdoors.
But in hospitals, “it is still a crisis situation. It is very busy. Every day, hundreds of people come into the Emergency Department,” many with chronic illnesses, some infected but unaware of it.
This is the result, he added, of having focused for more than two years on the pandemic. Hospitals’ Business As Usual (BAU) workloads have built up, and chronic cases have gotten more severe.
Furthermore, Mr Ong pointed out that because hospitals are still so busy, healthcare workers need all the support they can get.
Therefore, while the situation regarding the unvaccinated is “not exactly equitable when you look at businesses, you don’t want at this point to add workload to our healthcare workers,” he added.
The Health Minister said at this point that the “fair thing to do” as transmission rates decrease, is “to go through it a bit more” until hospitals are in a better position and to give healthcare workers “a breather” before Singapore should consider removing VDS Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures. /TISG
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