Singapore prepares for employees’ return to office

The number of unvaccinated workers has fallen from 113,000 on October 17, marking a one-third drop, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

This comes as the country requires all staff to be fully inoculated come January 1 to be able to return to their workplaces.

Workers can also return if they have recovered from COVID-19 in the past 270 days or have a negative pre-event testing (PET) result for the duration they are required to be at the workplace. The PET result is valid for 24 hours.

The Public Service Division (PSD) said that its agencies have strongly encouraged unvaccinated officers to get inoculated to protect themselves and others, with 99% of its 153,000 public officers being fully vaccinated.

The country’s largest healthcare cluster, SingHealth, which has more than 40,000 healthcare professionals and outsourced partners working at its institutions, said more than 99.5% of its staff are fully vaccinated.

READ: Nine businesses in Singapore double paid paternity leave from 2022

Similarly, the Ministry of Transport has reported that 99% of front-line transport workers, including bus captains, airline pilots and cabin crew, have been fully vaccinated, according to The Sunday Times.