Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

The Ministry of Health announced that all visitation to hospital wards will be stopped from Aug. 5-18, 2021, both dates inclusive.

This is an "interim measure to reduce the potential transmission in the hospitals", the health ministry said.

Patient groups that will be exempted and allowed visitation on a conditional and case-by-case basis as assessed by the hospital include:

• Patients whose conditions have turned "very ill"
• Paediatric patients;
• Birthing/post-partum mothers; and
• Patients requiring additional care support from caregivers, which include assistance of inpatients who have mental incapacities

For the above groups of patients, only one visitor is allowed per day with visit duration of no more than 30 minutes (at the bedside).

For patients who are very ill, up to five pre-designated visitors may be registered, with a maximum of two visitors at the

patient’s bedside at any one time of no more than 30 minutes visit duration.

Any visitor who requires to stay beyond 30 minutes visit duration such as caregiver training, will only be allowed after the visitor test negative on a supervised antigen rapid test (the validity of the result of this test is 24 hours).

In addition, all visitors to the hospitals must don face masks with good filtration capability at all times. These include reusable masks that are made of two layers of fabrics, and surgical masks. No eating or drinking is permitted in the inpatient wards.

Rise in community cases

This announcement follows a recent rise in Covid-19 community cases recently, which includes staff and patients of hospitals.

MOH said that any detection of cases within a hospital will invariably lead to a ward closure, limiting movements of patients and staff in and out of the affected ward. Affected patients and staff will also be placed on quarantine.

Such measures while necessary to control further transmission of the virus, will have an adverse impact on hospitals’ capacity in caring for patients, MOH explained.

Changi General Hospital was one of the eight new clusters announced on Aug. 3, with a total of three cases linked to the cluster.

To encourage more people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, all patients (inpatient and outpatient) who are unvaccinated will be approached by the hospital healthcare team on vaccination if clinically appropriate.

Patients who receive their first dose of Covid-19 vaccination at the hospital should return to the same hospital for their second dose.

MOH said, "Vaccinated patients will protect other patients in the hospital and reduce the risk of Covid-19 clusters in the hospitals."

Follow and listen to our podcast here

Top photo by Angelo Sumayao/Google Maps