Singapore to simplify ‘difficult to understand’ coronavirus rules
- More attention will be paid to hospitalisations than daily cases, as the island moves away from its Covid Zero strategy towards treating the virus as endemic
- Subsequent easing of curbs will be done in different stages
The island, which boasts a 95 per cent vaccination rate among the eligible population, will look to pay more attention to hospitalisations rather than daily cases to guide its strategy, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a briefing on Friday.
Further easing of measures will take place only “when conditions are right and the health care workload has eased, which we expect in the coming weeks”, the health ministry said in a statement.
The financial hub is proceeding with its plans to treat the virus as endemic – after moving away from a strict Covid Zero strategy some months ago – while ensuring its health care system is not overwhelmed.
A wave of Omicron infections, which saw daily cases top 10,000 in the past month and hit a record of about 26,000 on February 22, led to delays in the implementation of some easing measures.
Authorities will adjust rules from March 15, the health ministry said in the statement. This “is not an easing of measures, but a streamlining of the many rules that have accumulated over two years, which made the rules difficult to understand”, it said.
