GEIS-新闻详情

Unvaccinated school staff among those who must undergo regular Covid-19 tests from Oct 1

2021-08-13 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE - Teachers and school staff who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 will undergo twice-weekly antigen rapid tests (ARTs) from Oct 1, as part of the new vaccinate or regular test regime.

This will also apply to non-government employees who have regular contact with students aged 12 and below, including those working in tuition and enrichment centres, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook post on Friday (Aug 13).

At the same time, cleaners in tuition and enrichment centres that cater to students aged 12 and below will also be required to undergo regular testing under the fast and easy testing (FET) regime from Sept 3.

Staff in schools working in higher-risk settings, such as cleaners and physical education (PE) teachers who conduct mask-off activities as part of PE lessons, are required to undergo testing every two weeks as part of the FET regime, even if they are vaccinated against Covid-19.

These are among measures taken by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to adopt a more sustainable approach towards school cases as Singapore moves towards living with an endemic Covid-19.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Health said that the “vaccinate or regular test regime” would be introduced in several work settings from Oct 1, including premises with children aged 12 and below.

The twice-weekly testing regime applies to those who are not yet fully vaccinated, unvaccinated, or medically ineligible for vaccination against Covid-19.

In his post, Mr Chan noted that about 216 students out of Singapore's 600,000 student population were infected by the Covid-19 virus from May to July. About half of these - 103 - were primary school students.

More than half of the cases were isolated through leave of absence (LOA) or quarantine order (QO) before they tested positive, which meant that no contact tracing was required in schools as they did not pose any risk to their schoolmates, the minister said.

Over those three months, more than 20,000 students across 50 schools were placed on home-based learning at different times and for varying time periods.

None of these students was Covid-19 positive, as all close contacts of confirmed cases had already been placed on LOA or QO, Mr Chan said.

Since early August, the ministry has moved towards a more targeted approach when dealing with Covid-19 infections, he noted.

"This means that where possible, we will place close contacts and students from the same classes or CCA groups under LOA or QO instead of putting the entire level on HBL. The disruptions are further minimised this way."