Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong [Source: Ministry of Health and Medical Services]

The Ministry of Health has made changes to its approach as staff will now have to work even if they are primary or secondary contacts of positive COVID-19 patients.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong however, says they must continue to use proper PPE and following strict Infection Prevention and Control measures.

All health staff who are positive and asymptomatic can continue to work in COVID safe working bubbles subject to the urgency of the need for their expertise, and with the approval from their Head of Departments.

Doctor Fong says all health staff who are positive and symptomatic will be managed as per the current protocol and will resume duties after clearance.

The Permanent Secretary says testing will now be done on frequent intervals, up to three to five days depending on the nature of the unit these staff work in.

He says these changes are to ensure the Ministry optimizes the use of its assets and resources to achieve the objective of slowing down the transmission and minimize severe patient outcomes from the outbreak.

He says they want all clinical settings to be working with full staff capacity.

He adds responses have now changed from elimination to mitigation particularly for the Central Division where there have been large-scale community transmissions.

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