As part of additional precautionary measures to contain the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) spread, the Government will suspend all senior-centric activities conducted by its agencies.
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong announced this at a Multi-Ministerial Taskforce press conference on 10 March 2020.
The suspension will run for 14 days, from 11–24 March 2020. It will include activities held at community centres, resident’s committees, senior activity centres, active ageing hubs, Health Promotion Board and ActiveSG sport centres.
The suspension will affect about 2,600 classes and 11,000 activities, with a total of 290,000 participants.
“The Ministry of Health [MOH] has found that many of the recent cases were transmitted during social gatherings among our seniors … We want our seniors to be active, but there is now transmission among seniors participating in such social activities because some individuals who were unwell continued to participate,” said Mr Gan.
MOH added that in the interim before activities resume, organisers will implement additional precautionary measures such as reducing the group size of activities to prevent crowding, re-organising to avoid physical contact, increasing the frequency of sanitising equipment between activities, providing sufficient facilities for regular hand washing and checking if participants are well.
A spokesperson from U Live, the active-ager community of NTUC, said that since the Government raised the nation's alert level to DORSCON Orange, the community has largely suspended activities and gatherings for seniors.
“We will follow the government’s initiative to stop all U Live activities for 14 days. Our members are active on social media and are encouraged to keep themselves engaged through our Telegram, Facebook and EDM [Electronic Direct Mail] content during this period,” added the spokesperson.
Care services for seniors – such as nursing homes, inpatient and day hospices, senior care centre services and home-based care services – will be allowed to continue to run, but with additional precautionary measures.
Several operators such as NTUC Health have been implementing precautionary measures at its nursing homes and senior care centres to protect its senior residents since the beginning of local transmissions in February.
NTUC Health Assistant Director of Clinical Services Goh Siew Hor said that the safety of NTUC Health’s clients and staff was of the utmost importance.
In line with MOH’s guidelines, NTUC Health took additional precautionary measures such as taking the temperature of all staff, clients and visitors before entry into its premises, putting in place travel declaration and movement logs, limiting the number of visitors to its eldercare centres, and suspending volunteer visits and large group activities.
“We have also increased the frequency of disinfecting across all our premises and encouraged staff and seniors to exercise good personal hygiene by washing their hands frequently and to stay at home if they are not feeling well. At our nursing homes, we conduct Covid-19 sharing sessions with our residents to raise awareness on what the virus is all about. While volunteering activities have stopped, we have taken the opportunity to encourage our residents to take the lead in planning and running activities they enjoy,” explained Dr Goh.
He also shared that NTUC Health had set up a taskforce at the start of the pandemic, comprising representatives from all business and key functional departments, to decide on appropriate actions to be taken and to ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information to the ground.
“As the situation with Covid-19 continues to evolve, we will remain vigilant to respond to any escalation,” added Dr Goh.
At the press conference, Health Minister Gan added that he was concerned that many of Singapore’s locally transmitted cases was a result of the “socially irresponsible actions of a few individuals who go to work, attend events, and participate in activities despite being unwell.”
Some 35 of the 160 confirmed cases did not take steps to minimise social contact although they had already developed a fever, respiratory symptoms or had consulted a doctor earlier when unwell, according to Mr Gan.
“This socially irresponsible behavior poses a risk for all of us. The measures we have implemented will only work if individuals cooperate and behave in a socially responsible manner,” said Mr Gan.
MOH has performed more than 21,000 Covid-19 tests to-date.
The taskforce also gave an update that there were six new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 166 at press time.
Ninety-three have been discharged from hospital. Among the 73 still in hospital, 12 are in the Intensive Care Unit.
