SINGAPORE — All senior-centric activities conducted by government agencies will be suspended for 14 days from Wednesday (March 11), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

In a statement on Tuesday, MOH noted that seniors were particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. It found that many of the recently confirmed cases were transmitted during social activities and gatherings among seniors.

For example, among the Safra Jurong cluster that began as a private dinner function at Joy Garden Restaurant there on Feb 15, there were seniors involved in singing activities and classes conducted by the People’s Association (PA) and other social activities, it added.

“Seniors are a particularly vulnerable group,” MOH said. “While we encourage seniors to be active, there is now evidence of Covid-19 transmission among the seniors participating in such social activities, chiefly because some individuals who were unwell had continued to participate in them.”

The suspension will apply to activities including those held at community clubs (CCs), residents’ committees (RCs), senior activity centres, active ageing hubs, ActiveSG sports centres, the Health Promotion Board and Crest centres. Crest, short for Community Resource Engagement and Support Team, is a community-based outreach programme for older persons at risk of or have mental illness such as depression or dementia. 

Speaking at a media briefing on the new measures, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said: “We targeted (the measures) at senior groups not because the seniors are spreading the disease. It is mainly because we wanted to protect the seniors. They are more vulnerable from a medical point of view. We have seen from overseas data that seniors tend to have more serious illnesses arising from Covid-19.”

Organisers will implement precautionary measures before activities resume, MOH said.

These include reducing the group size to prevent crowding, reorganising activities to minimise physical contact, increasing the frequency of sanitising equipment between activities, providing sufficient facilities for hand-washing and checking if participants are well.

Tuesday’s move is an expansion of measures that MOH had announced just three days ago last Saturday, when it called for a 14-day suspension of all activities and classes at CCs and RCs which the confirmed cases had participated in, as well as all singing classes organised by the PA at the affected CCs and RCs.

MOH noted that many of the recently confirmed cases were seniors who took part in singing classes and other activities such as qigong and line-dancing at several CCs and RCs.

Care services for seniors, such as nursing homes, inpatient and day hospices, senior care centre services and home-based care services will continue to run but with extra precautionary measures, the ministry said.

It added that the multi-ministry task force charged with handling the Covid-19 outbreak is assessing the local and global situation and is studying a broader range of social distancing measures it might take to help further slow the spread of the virus.

Elaborating on this point during the media briefing, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said that these may include measures such as the closure of schools or workplaces, and that it may mean introducing steps such as staggered hours or telecommuting.

He added: “School closure is something that impacts many people. We will provide lead time and given that the March school holiday is upon us, it will not be changed, we are not planning anything for the March school holidays, it will remain as it is.

“But beyond that, whether there are other measures that we are considering, or whether there will be school closures beyond that, I wouldn't rule them out… and we will provide the time for parents so that they can work out on their own arrangements for caregiving of their children.”

When asked whether the National Day Parade (NDP) would be affected by upcoming social distancing measures, Mr Wong said that the taskforce is studying the issue.

“We are reviewing all of these measures, including the present advisory on large-scale events and whether it ought to be tightened, and if so, then we will have downstream implications on all the events that are going to happen, whether it's NDP or any other thing that's going to happen through the coming months.”

The latest advisory from MOH encourages organisers to defer or cancel non-essential large-scale events, but says that they can proceed if they choose to, with added precautionary measures.

Mr Gan added that Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, director of medical services at MOH, had earlier said that the outbreak would not be over soon.

“We really don't know how long (the outbreak) is going to last. (Assoc Prof Mak) has said at least till the end of the year, or to that effect,” he said.

“We must be prepared for the long haul... some of the measures that we put in place today, some may be short term (and) some will be there for the long term.”

He added that longer-term measures include promoting good public and personal hygiene, which will be “good for the whole society whether it is Covid-19 or other infectious diseases”.

But short-term measures, such as travel restrictions, will not be possible for the long term.

However, he said that it is not the time yet to lift the travel restrictions. He added that the Government is monitoring the situation and it will have to “assess as we go along”.

In a separate statement, the PA said that the suspension will affect about 2,600 classes and 11,000 interest group activities with about 290,000 non-unique participants.

These include classes on music, drama and dance, various exercises, IT and smartphone skills, and personal effectiveness and career development.

The respective CCs and RCs will inform the participants directly about the suspension.

The association said that it will also reduce the number of participants for each activity to ensure enough space between them, adjust the rigour of activities to minimise contact and exertion, and shorten the duration of the activities to minimise exposure.

SUSPENDED ACTIVITIES

Agency for Integrated Care

• Group and individual activities at senior activity centres and active ageing hubs

• Group activities at Crest centres

• Merdeka Generation roadshows

Health Promotion Board

• Community Physical Activity Programme (Seniors)

• Move It, Feel Young 

• FIT+

• Seniors’ Health Curriculum

• Balik Kampung

• Rolling Good Times

• National Steps Challenge Season 5 Silver Challenge Trails

• Cooking demonstrations

People’s Association

• Senior-centric courses, activities and interest groups at CCs and RCs

SportSG

• Dance programmes (eg. Zumba)

• Aqua sports (eg. aqua aerobics)

• Sports interest groups (eg. badminton, pickleball)

• Social interest groups (eg. urban gardening, hiking)

• Active Health (eg. lab and gym sessions)