Safe-management measures for workplace to be reviewed after Chinese New Year period

SAFE-MANAGEMENT measures for the workplace may be adjusted, as Singapore's Covid-19 task force monitors the situation after the Chinese New Year period, Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad said.

"Adjustments to safe-management measures for the workplace will consider the public health risk, level of community cases, as well as employee and business interest," he told Parliament on Monday in response to an MP's question.

"As we have seen from the resurgence of infections in some countries in the region, we must remain vigilant in our approach to managing the transmission risks," he added.

Safe-management measures for the general community were tightened in January due to a rise in the number of community cases and in view of the anticipated increase in social activities during the Chinese New Year period.

The tripartite partners thus decided to defer any updates to safe-management measures for the workplace, Mr Zaqy said.

Work-from-home remains the default work arrangement for now, and employers must ensure that no more than 50 per cent of employees who are able to work from home are at the workplace at any point in time, he added. These employees should also work from home for at least half their working time.

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Separately, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung told the House that there are no plans to require visitors to be vaccinated before they can enter Singapore. "Instead, we will continue to use tests and Stay-Home Notice requirements to ensure that travellers do not bring the virus into our communities," he said.

He added that more scientific data is needed the determine the extent to which vaccines can reduce the likelihood of an individual infecting others. This means it is premature to decide whether border measures can be relaxed for vaccinated individuals and whether there should be differentiation between different vaccines for purposes of implementing border measures, he said.

However, Singapore is looking to work on a system of mutual recognition of vaccine certification between countries and is in talks at the International Civil Aviation Organization and with various countries on the mutual recognition of such certifications.

This would be based on HealthCerts, a set of digital standards for issuing digital Covid-19 test results certificates developed by the Government Technology Agency and the Ministry of Health.