Announcement

Resetting Our Measures to Live With the Omicron Variant

09 March 2022

The Multi-Ministry Taskforce announced on 20 November 2021 that we will be simplifying healthcare protocols, workplace testing requirements, and Safe Management Measures (SMMs), so that everyone can understand the rules, focus on the measures that matter, and do our part in making sure our measures remain effective.

• More age groups of patients to be managed by primary care physicians under Protocol 2 if they exhibit mild symptoms
• Shorter monitoring duration and simplified testing requirements for those under Protocol 3 (i.e. close contacts of COVID-19 cases)
• Focusing the Mandatory Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) on sectors where there are interactions with vulnerable population as well as the provision of essential services
• Streamlining the SMMs to a set of five core parameters, so that it will be easier for everyone to comply with them on a daily basis
• Simplifying our country/region classification and streamlining our border testing measures given the reduced impact of imported cases 

These measures will allow us to respond nimbly to changes in the pandemic situation in the coming months, including to ease measures when the Omicron wave eventually subside, or tighten up should there be another unknown new variant.