All hospitals to ban visitors to wards from Aug 5 to 18; exceptions on case-by-case basis

SINGAPORE — All visitors will be barred from hospital wards from Aug 5 to 18 — with the exception of several groups, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

This comes in the midst of a rise in community cases, including among staff members and patients of hospitals.

In a statement on Wednesday (Aug 4), MOH said that exceptions could be made for visitors of the following groups of patients:

• Patients who are very ill

• Paediatric patients

• Birthing or postpartum mothers

• Patients needing more care support from caregivers. They include patients with mental incapacities whose family members are undergoing caregiver training to better care for them after their discharge

Hospitals may admit these groups of visitors on a conditional and case-by-case basis, said MOH.

Even so, these groups of patients can receive only one visitor a day for up to 30 minutes.

For patients who are very ill, up to five pre-designated visitors may be registered, with a maximum of two visitors at a patient’s bedside at any one time for up to 30 minutes during each visit.

Any visitor who is required to stay in a hospital for more than 30 minutes, such as for caregiver training, will be admitted only after the visitor tests negative on a supervised Covid-19 antigen rapid test within 24 hours of the visit.

Explaining the move, MOH said that any detection of cases within a hospital would invariably lead to the closure of a ward, and this would limit the movement of patients and staff members in and out of the affected ward.

The affected patients and staff members will also be quarantined. 

This will put a strain on hospital resources, such as the availability of hospital employees and bed capacities, said the ministry.

MOH reminded all visitors to hospitals to wear face masks with good filtration capability at all times.

These include surgical masks and reusable masks made of at least two layers of fabric.

Eating or drinking in the wards is banned. Visitors are also barred from using the patients’ toilets in the wards and sitting on the hospital beds.

“MOH will review the above measures regularly and we seek the understanding and cooperation of all Singaporeans as we make adjustments to protect our patients and hospitals during this transition period towards a Covid-resilient society,” said the ministry.

Its announcement came a day after a new cluster was uncovered at Changi General Hospital in Simei. The cluster emerged three days after the authorities closed an earlier cluster there last Saturday. 

A separate cluster at Yishun Community Hospital, where four patients were infected, surfaced on Sunday.

COVID-19 VACCINATION

Separately, MOH said that hospital healthcare teams would approach all unvaccinated patients, if clinically appropriate, to encourage more people to receive the jabs.

Patients who receive their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at a hospital should return to the same hospital for their second dose, said MOH.

“Vaccinated patients will protect other patients in the hospital and reduce the risk of Covid-19 clusters in the hospitals,” it added.