VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Office workers at Raffles Place on Jul 22, 2021. (File photo: Marcus Mark Ramos) - 

From Jan 1, only employees who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have recovered from the disease within the past 270 days will be allowed to return to workplaces, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 23).

Unvaccinated employees will not be allowed to return to their workplaces unless they have tested negative for COVID-19. These employees will bear the costs of testing.

The tests should be administered at MOH-approved providers and must be valid for the duration that the employees are required to be at their workplaces. Negative antigen rapid test results are valid for 24 hours.

The testing requirement will also apply to employees who are pregnant or medically ineligible for vaccination.

“Tripartite partners have agreed on special considerations that employers should grant to these groups, such as allowing work from home without affecting performance and coming to a reasonable agreement on cost-sharing of the tests,” MOH said.

On Saturday, MOH also announced an exemption from vaccination-differentiated safe management measures for people who are medically ineligible for all vaccines under the national vaccination programme.

The exemption will apply from next month, said co-chair of the COVID-19 task force Gan Kim Yong.

“For individuals who are medically ineligible for the national vaccination programme, we will give special concession for them to enter premises or participate in activities where the vaccination-differentiated safe management systems are required, such as shopping malls, attractions, hawker centres and coffee shops, starting from Nov 1, 2021,” Mr Gan said at a news conference on Saturday.

“For those who are medically ineligible for mRNA vaccines but are eligible for Sinovac, they will need to be vaccinated with Sinovac to be considered to be fully vaccinated.”

Mr Gan added that such individuals will be given a grace period until Dec 31 to get their Sinovac shots.

It was announced earlier in the briefing that the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine will be included in Singapore’s national vaccination programme.

Fully vaccinated seniors can look forward to participating in “safe and healthy activities” that will help them maintain their physical and mental wellness, MOH said on Saturday.

“Over the past months, the options for seniors to be socially engaged in wellness activities have been limited, as a result of safe management measures which had to be imposed to curb transmission of COVID-19,” MOH said.

“Keeping active is important for our seniors to maintain good physical and mental health. Hence, the People’s Association will organise activities for fully vaccinated seniors according to prevailing safe management measures.”

Mr Gan said that activities may include physical exercises like qigong, outings and learning journeys//CNA