Singapore not expected to move out of Phase 3 'any time soon': Janil Puthucheary

Singapore

SINGAPORE is not expected to move out of Phase 3 "any time soon" said Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary in Parliament on Thursday.

He cited three milestones that must be hit: that there is evidence on vaccine effectiveness in preventing future outbreaks; that a substantial proportion of the population is vaccinated; and the rest of the world has the virus under control.

Dr Janil was responding to a question from Member of Parliament (MP) Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang).

Singapore entered the third phase of its Covid-19 reopening on Dec 28. Since then, there has been an increase in Covid-19 outbreaks in many other countries as well as the emergence of more easily transmitted variants of the virus, he noted.

Closer to home, Singapore faced an increase in the number of unlinked cases and community clusters several weeks ago. As a result, the Republic tightened community safe management measures and recalibrated the pace and scale at which activities were able to resume.

Asked how Singapore's vaccination timeline will change should the Sinovac vaccine be approved, Dr Janil replied that the timeline is dependent on a number of factors, including the ability to increase the capacity and capability of vaccination centres, as well as the willingness of people to get vaccinated.

"The approval or licensure of one given vaccine is not a great limiting step in that process. We will look at the vaccine licensure as an issue of safety and efficacy of a given vaccine."

He was also asked by MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang) if the Ministry of Health has backup processes should there be an outbreak of more virulent strains of Covid-19.

Dr Janil responded that fundamental measures such as safe distancing and contact tracing remain necessary and important.

"The key point would be that we take reference from technical and professional advice, and we are very grateful that we have a depth of technical and professional advice to advise us in fighting Covid-19."

Separately, Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How said the government is looking into providing more options for dedicated stay-home notice facilities to meet the preferences and budgets of travellers, in response to a question raised by Foo Mee Har (West Coast).

Currently, travellers cannot choose where they serve out their stay-home notice.

"We recognise that certain travellers may have specific needs. For instance, those who require elderly or disability-friendly facilities, or those travelling with children may require specific room arrangements. We consider appeals on a case-by-case basis, based on the traveller's financial or personal circumstances," he noted.