SINGAPORE —  Visitors to residential care homes for elderly persons will have to test negative for Covid-19 before their visits.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release on Friday (June 18) said that the new measure will take effect from June 21 when visits to such homes resume following a 15-day suspension. 

Visits to such homes were suspended on June 5 after a Covid-19 cluster emerged at the Mindsville@Napiri Home, a facility in Hougang for people with intellectual disabilities. 

MOH said that residential homes for elders will be deploying antigen rapid tests for visitors.  

Such tests are less accurate than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test but results may be known in 30 minutes while those for PCR tests may take up to 48 hours.

“We seek the patience and understanding of visitors that some homes may require more time to put in place the necessary procedures for antigen rapid tests and will only be able to resume visits at a later date,” MOH said in its news release. 

Other homes, it added, may start off with a smaller number of visitors to allow them to stabilise their operational processes before accommodating a larger number of visits. 

It advised visitors to schedule their visits with the residential homes ahead of time and take into consideration the added time required to complete the antigen rapid tests.

MOH added that it has been working with such facilities to strengthen their precautionary measures including reviewing the visitor management and testing policies to safeguard the health of the seniors.