SINGAPORE — From Jan 1 next year, only employees who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 within the past 270 days, or about nine months, can return to the workplace, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 23).

Unvaccinated employees will not be allowed to return to the workplace unless they have tested negative for Covid-19, and they will need to pay for the costs of these tests, MOH said.

The test should be a pre-event test at an MOH-approved Covid-19 test provider, and must be valid for the duration that the employees have to be at the workplace. Negative results from these antigen rapid tests are valid for 24 hours.

In a separate joint statement on Saturday, MOH and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that as of Oct 17, 96 per cent of the Singapore workforce has been vaccinated and 70 per cent of firms have attained 100 per cent vaccination coverage for their employees,

There still are around 113,000 unvaccinated employees, of which around 14,000 are above the age of 60, who are at high risk of severe illness or death from coronavirus infection.

Only a small proportion of these 113,000 employees are medically ineligible for vaccination, the ministries said.

Employers who have not attained full vaccine coverage for their employees are to encourage them to do so.

From 9am on Monday, employers may check their company’s vaccination rate at https://go.gov.sg/percentvaccinated.

EMPLOYEES WHO ARE PREGNANT, HAVE MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS

Workers who are doctor-certified to be medically ineligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines are strongly encouraged to visit an approved private clinic as soon as possible to get the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine, which has now been included in the national vaccination programme.

Employees who are medically ineligible for all the vaccines under the national programme, including Sinovac, are exempted from the workforce vaccination measures if they need to work on-site.

Pregnant employees are strongly encouraged to get immunised with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Sinovac vaccines as soon as possible, MOM and MOH said.

RESUMPTION OF ACTIVITIES FOR SENIORS

Over the past months, the options for seniors to be socially engaged in wellness activities have been limited because of Covid-19 rules, MOH noted, adding that keeping active is important for elders to maintain good physical and mental health.

“Hence, the People’s Association (PA) will organise activities for fully vaccinated seniors according to prevailing safe management measures,” it said.

These activities for fully vaccinated seniors will be held in a safe manner at specific sites and dedicated timings.

PA will give more details at a later date.