SINGAPORE: To relieve the caseload at clinics, people may take a supervised antigen rapid test (ART) at quick test centres and have their positive COVID-19 record uploaded on the HealthHub app within 30 minutes, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Tuesday (Feb 15).
They can also get ART kits at quick test centres, he added.
"So that way I hope we can divert many of the very mild cases away from GP (general practitioner) clinics into the QTCs (quick test centres). We have about 200 QTCs now, all over, including in malls. We will start with about a quarter of them," Mr Ong said in Parliament.
Bookings for an appointment to get tested via ART will open by the end of Tuesday, he added.
Mr Ong acknowledged that GPs are facing “quite a bit of pressure”, with queues of patients forming outside their clinics.
“We have to help the GPs,” he said.
“Many patients that go to the GPs and the GPs feedback to us, they either have mild or no symptoms, but they self-tested got themselves positive, (then) decided - I better see a GP,” he said.
They do so to get a medical certificate, to get ART kits or due to travel considerations.
“Many of them actually worry about travel. If they have to go through a PCR test … they want to show that actually I had COVID-19 and I'm a shedder and I recovered’,” Mr Ong said.
The Health Minister was responding to MP Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) who asked how healthcare workers and the healthcare system are coping with the increased number of infections from the Omicron wave.
The number of cases is within the Government’s expectations, Mr Ong reiterated. What is important now is not so much “topline” numbers, but how the numbers translate into disease severity and impact on healthcare capacity, he said.
Singapore's daily COVID-19 case count has hit five figures on some days. It reported 9,082 new infections as of noon on Monday.
“By and large, the healthcare system is coping well,” Mr Ong said, citing figures.
At the peak of the Delta wave, 171 beds were occupied in the intensive care unit (ICU) compared to the latest numbers - 23 - despite registering 10,000 cases a day.
The pressure is not on the clinical side of healthcare, but on the operational side, Mr Ong said.
He added that the number of calls to hotlines is also increasing, and with the help of other public agencies, more than 90 per cent of calls were answered without being dropped.
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They can also get ART kits at quick test centres, he added.
"So that way I hope we can divert many of the very mild cases away from GP (general practitioner) clinics into the QTCs (quick test centres). We have about 200 QTCs now, all over, including in malls. We will start with about a quarter of them," Mr Ong said in Parliament.
Bookings for an appointment to get tested via ART will open by the end of Tuesday, he added.
Mr Ong acknowledged that GPs are facing “quite a bit of pressure”, with queues of patients forming outside their clinics.
“We have to help the GPs,” he said.
“Many patients that go to the GPs and the GPs feedback to us, they either have mild or no symptoms, but they self-tested got themselves positive, (then) decided - I better see a GP,” he said.
They do so to get a medical certificate, to get ART kits or due to travel considerations.
“Many of them actually worry about travel. If they have to go through a PCR test … they want to show that actually I had COVID-19 and I'm a shedder and I recovered’,” Mr Ong said.
Related:
The Health Minister was responding to MP Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) who asked how healthcare workers and the healthcare system are coping with the increased number of infections from the Omicron wave.
The number of cases is within the Government’s expectations, Mr Ong reiterated. What is important now is not so much “topline” numbers, but how the numbers translate into disease severity and impact on healthcare capacity, he said.
Singapore's daily COVID-19 case count has hit five figures on some days. It reported 9,082 new infections as of noon on Monday.
“By and large, the healthcare system is coping well,” Mr Ong said, citing figures.
At the peak of the Delta wave, 171 beds were occupied in the intensive care unit (ICU) compared to the latest numbers - 23 - despite registering 10,000 cases a day.
The pressure is not on the clinical side of healthcare, but on the operational side, Mr Ong said.
He added that the number of calls to hotlines is also increasing, and with the help of other public agencies, more than 90 per cent of calls were answered without being dropped.
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Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Continue reading...