Fifth Update on Whole-of-Government Responses to COVID-19

3.01 pm

The Minister for Health (Mr Ong Ye Kung): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, my fellow Co-Chairs of the Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF), Minister Gan Kim Yong and Minister Lawrence Wong and I will be delivering Ministerial Statements to update Members on the COVID-19 situation in Singapore.

Our Ministerial Statements will address Oral Question Nos 1 to 5 and 26 to 28 and Written Question Nos 28, 29 and 31 to 33 on today's Order Paper. It will cover questions on the KTV and Jurong Fishery Port clusters, our COVID-19 vaccination programme and our plans to transit to live normally with COVID-19.

Mr Murali Pillai^1,2, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim³, Mr Darryl David^4,5, Mr Xie Yao Quan^6,7, Mr Yip Hon Weng⁸, Mr Seah Kian Peng⁹, Ms Raeesah Khan¹⁰ and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin¹¹ have filed Oral and Written Questions scheduled for future Sittings on these issues. As today’s Ministerial Statements would address those questions, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to invite these Members to seek clarifications, should they have any, on these issues after the Ministerial Statements. And should their queries be sufficiently addressed, it may not be necessary for them to proceed with their Parliamentary Questions (PQs) for future Sittings.

With that, let me start.

On Monday, 12 July 2021, MOH detected several COVID-19 positive cases amongst individuals who frequented KTV bars and lounges. These individuals included patrons of the bars and hostesses who worked in the lounges. These activities were considered very high risk and had been disallowed since the beginning of the pandemic.

The cluster grew rapidly and MOH moved in quickly to isolate infected persons. We identified rings of contacts and tested them for COVID-19. We ordered a two-week suspension of operations in all pivoted nightlife establishments from 16 July till 30 July. The pivoted nightlife establishments cannot resume operations until they pass inspections to ensure that safe management measure protocols are in place and they have received written approval.

Mr Xie Yao Quan asked if we would consider making the individuals in the KTV cluster pay for their COVID-19 medical expenses in full. We are all upset by the irresponsible behaviour of the individuals involved in this KTV cluster, but we still have a public responsibility to ensure that everyone receives the medical care that they need. We also do not want individuals, especially those who are infected, to avoid getting tested and treated, or hide where they have been from contact tracers, because they are afraid of getting penalised. This will make it harder to contain the spread and would cost us more in the long run.

We were on the path towards progressive opening and the KTV cluster was a major unexpected bump on the road. The MTF deliberated on the matter, took in advice from MOH experts and came to the conclusion that, given our extensive tracing and testing efforts and our population vaccination rate for two doses was approaching 50% at that time, on balance, we felt that the cluster ought not significantly change our plans to open up.

Hence, on 16 July, the MTF announced our decision to maintain our then current safe management posture. We made some adjustments to the rules for eating in restaurants, we called it the "two-five rule". Two, if you are unvaccinated; five, you can dine together, provided everyone is fully vaccinated.

Based on how the cluster has developed, we still believe that was the correct call. As of 25 July 2021, that means end of yesterday, the KTV cluster has a total of 237 infected persons. For the past three days, the daily increase in infection for the cluster was six, five and five respectively. So, it is coming under control.

Unfortunately, things got derailed due to a larger and more troublesome cluster and this is the Jurong Fishery Port cluster. On the evening of Friday, 16 July 2021, we started to detect multiple infections at the Jurong Fishery Port, as well as in Hong Lim market. This involved fishmongers, their assistants going about an honest living, collecting fishes at the fishery port, but unwittingly getting infected and then transmitting to more people in the markets and communities where they ply their trade.

MOH, with the help of NEA, took immediate steps to prevent further spread by stopping the fishmongers and their assistants from setting up stalls on Sunday, 18 July 2021. It was very tough to tell them "You can't set up stalls". We then issued Health Risk Warnings which required them to undergo PCR tests and isolate themselves until they get a negative result.

Of the 1,548 tested, 43 were found to be COVID-19 positive. The numbers are a bit different from what I reported earlier as we cleaned up the numbers. This indicated that significant community transmission had most likely already silently occurred in the days before 18 July 2021, Sunday.

Markets are frequented by wide segments of the public, particularly seniors, of whom one-quarter are still not fully vaccinated. The risk of infections rising uncontrollably could not be ruled out. These infections could potentially result in more cases of severe illnesses or even deaths among our vulnerable senior population.

Hence, the MTF decided to pre-emptively dial back to Phase Two (Heightened Alert). This came into effect on 22 July 2021. We did this to buy ourselves time, precious time, to get more of our population vaccinated, so that we can continue on our path towards living with COVID-19 safely.

The preliminary phylogenetic findings suggest that while the KTV and Jurong Fishery Port clusters were all driven by the Delta variant, it is distinct from the Delta variant that infected Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the Changi Airport clusters. The recent clusters have a Delta strain that is more closely related to what we detected in imported cases from our immediate region. However, there are also slight genetic differences between the strains in the two clusters, suggesting that there were multiple introduction points.

As of 25 July 2021, the Jurong Fishery Port has a total of 792 cases. It is still growing, but now at a slower rate. The daily infection numbers over the last three days were 79, 79 and 46 respectively.

Overall, we have seen a high number of daily cases at over 100 for the past several days. But the situation is stabilising, with daily infections trending down.

Percentage of cases isolated or quarantined before turning COVID-19 positive is something we watch closely and it is on an upward trend which is good. That means, when a person started to be detected as positive, he is already quarantined and isolated. On 19 July, that was when the cluster first broke out, we had a total of 163 cases and only 27% were isolated before detection. Lately, this hovers around 40%. Today, we should have more than half of our cases already isolated.

If we can keep raising that percentage through tracing and testing, we can progressively suppress this wave of transmission. But our objective is not to stop transmissions completely. That is no longer possible, given how transmissible the Delta variant is and as we open up, people circulate more.

So, the only possible way now to eradicate infections is to go into a hard circuit breaker for at least a month, probably two. But we do not want to be locked up. Further, even if we do lock ourselves up, when the circuit breaker ends and we open up, cases will rise again. Eradication is, therefore, not possible nor sustainable. We must instead find ways to live with this virus safely.

Several Members, namely Mr Yip Hon Weng, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, Ms Raeesah Khan, were interested to find out more about our transition plans to live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease.

Vaccinations are key to this transition and the national programme is progressing well. As of end of yesterday, 25 July 2021, 54% of our population has received two doses of the mRNA vaccine. And our population vaccination rate is going up by about one percentage point a day. So, by National Day, almost 70% will have received two doses. By early September, it should be almost 80% having received two doses of mRNA vaccines. This means that Singapore, by then, will have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. It puts us in a strong position to transit to a COVID-19-resilient society.

Our main worry is that our seniors, especially those 70 and above, are not sufficiently vaccinated. Today, just over 70% of them have received two doses of the vaccines.

Ms Tin Pei Ling asked for an update on the home vaccination scheme. We have launched nine home vaccination teams so far. As of 23 July, 734 seniors had received vaccinations under that programme.

Further, more seniors are coming forward to our vaccination centres and also our mobile vaccination teams. We have been seeing about 500 seniors coming forward on a daily basis to receive their first doses for the past few weeks. But for the past few days, that number has doubled to over 1,000 every day now.

How did that come about? It is good news. But it may be due to heightened awareness as a result of more community transmission, the lifting of rules that had previously deferred their vaccinations – for those with medical conditions – and also our very intensive outreach efforts.

For example, our mobile teams have gone all the way to Pulau Ubin to vaccinate seniors who are living there. We know of general practitioners (GPs) who persuaded and called up their clients, the seniors, persuaded them to go for vaccinations and then opened up their clinics for them to sit in the clinics the whole day so that they feel assured that if they feel unwell, help is always nearby, help from someone they trust, their GPs.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a measure of the kind of society we are. We are making such an extraordinary effort with our seniors because we are not prepared to accept the high fatality rates amongst the elderly that other countries had or are still experiencing.

As a result of all these efforts, 77% of our seniors 70 years and above have now received their first doses. Within a month or so, they should all have received their second doses and after that, another 14 days, they should all be strongly protected against COVID-19.

Even at our current rate of vaccination – 54% or so for two doses – the preliminary evidence is that it has been effective in reducing the incidence of severe illnesses and deaths.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I show a chart on the screen, please?

Mr Deputy Speaker: Yes, please do. [A chart was shown to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Thank you. The top blue line is infection. The bottom line in orange is the number with severe illnesses requiring oxygen supplementation or ICU.

As Members can see, while daily infections had gone up sharply over the past couple of weeks, the number of patients with severe illnesses who required oxygen supplementation or are in ICU remained relatively low. There was a slight uptick but relatively suppressed.

Currently, all of these patients with severe illnesses are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. But we are watching this closely because there is a time lag of one to two weeks between infection and the onset of severe illnesses. For now, it would appear that we have successfully weakened the link between infections and severe illnesses.

While we are making good progress in vaccinating our people, we acknowledge that the recent reversion to Phase Two (Heightened Alert) has caused some confusion amongst members of the public. They are asking: is the MTF still committed to the path towards normalcy and living with COVID-19?

The answer is a definite yes. For that is the only way for Singaporeans to regain our lives and livelihoods, for Singapore to reconnect with the world again, for our young to look into the future with hope.

Some countries, like the UK, have declared a Freedom Day recently, where all social restrictions are lifted all at once. Others, like Israel and the Netherlands, opened up and saw sharp increases in infections and hospitalisations and had had to dial back very quickly.

Ours will be a controlled opening. We are not going to do a big bang because, predictably, things will then blow up. The MTF has been developing a roadmap comprising packages of measures to be implemented step-by-step over the next few months and with every step, ensuring that opening up is safe for the community.

But even as we do so, we must bear in mind that until we reach a sufficiently high vaccination rate, especially amongst our seniors, we will continue to be vulnerable to unexpected setbacks – just like what we are going through now.

A high rate of vaccination will provide us with a more solid and stable base as we proceed on this journey. The higher the vaccination rate, the more solid the ground we walk on.

So, in a way, this is the most peculiar period of our transition, where we are clear about our mission, our will is firm, we have a broad plan but we do not have enough antibodies in all of us to ensure that we can follow through our plans without a hitch.

But let us not underestimate the progress we have made. The roadmap is, in fact, being implemented as we speak. Our attention often is on the Safe Management Measures, or SMMs, such as whether we can eat in restaurants. But there at least three other important aspects, namely: (a) restoring economic and social activities, including connecting with the outside world; (b) remodelling COVID-19 healthcare protocols; and (c) shifting our collective psychology, which, I feel, is probably the hardest.

Minister Gan Kim Yong will speak about restoring economic activities while Minister Lawrence Wong will speak more about enabling more social activities. Let me talk about healthcare protocols and our collective psychology.

As we learn to live with COVID-19, our healthcare protocols must be remodelled. If COVID-19 is, indeed, endemic, having 200 or more cases may not be an unusual thing at all.

During an influenza season, our daily infection rates can go up to as high as 1,000 a day. Imagine we treat influenza like we treat COVID-19. This is what will happen.

We will put everyone suspected of influenza infections through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and then long isolated stays in hospitals. Then, everyone they come into contact with will be quarantined. A thousand cases a day. This will disrupt the lives of many people. Further, hospital beds will all be filled and many other patients who are sicker will be turned away. The healthcare system will not be able to cope and that is clearly not the way to deal with an endemic disease.

So, if we want to live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease, we cannot carry on with the current healthcare protocols. They need to shift closer to how we treat influenza today – without extensive contact tracing and quarantine in dedicated facilities and hospitalising only those who are very ill.

But that can only happen when the likelihood of developing a very serious or life-threatening disease as a result of a COVID-19 infection has been significantly reduced by effective vaccination of our population, especially amongst the vulnerable.

With our current rate of vaccinations, we have started to take the first transition step to remodel our healthcare protocols. As of last week, we had made the following changes.

First, greater use of community care facilities instead of hospitals. Vaccinated individuals aged between 45 and 59 who test positive for COVID-19 and show no or mild symptoms can be directly admitted to community care facilities instead of going first to hospitals. These community care facilities, currently, for example, are NTUC D'Resort as well as Civil Service Club (CSC) Loyang. This was already the practice for all cases aged between 17 and 45, but we are now expanding the protocol to people up to 59 years old.

With this change, we expect up to 60% of infected cases to recover in community care facilities instead of in acute care hospitals. Meanwhile, we will plan for the next step. This is just the first step. We will plan for the next one where perhaps 80% can be admitted to community care facilities and some can even start to recover at home.

The second change is, we have shortened the length of stay in hospitals and community care facilities. Our tests have shown that the viral load in infected persons who are fully vaccinated falls very rapidly to a very low level after nine days. Previously, most people, generally, were discharged only after 21 days. We are now discharging fully vaccinated persons after 14 days from the onset of illness, with a seven-day leave of absence in addition, so long as their tests show that they are COVID-19 negative or have very low viral loads.

We are reviewing our policy to allow fully vaccinated patients to be discharged even earlier and to complete the rest of the isolation period at home if their home environment is suitable.

The third change is the greater use of home quarantines. For fully vaccinated persons, they can now serve their quarantine at home instead of at a dedicated Government facility, provided that their home is suitable for isolation. We expect that up to 40% of persons under quarantine can serve their quarantine at home and this will go beyond 50% in the coming few weeks as more people get vaccinated.

These are amongst the first steps that we will take in the healthcare transition. In the meantime, what we are experiencing in this current wave of transmission is also valuable because we are also witnessing a palpable shift in our collective psychology.

The first, I think, is a shift away from always focusing on infection numbers. We used to get a shock when we see high daily numbers because this will mean that a week or two from then, we will see more severe illnesses and deaths.

However, in recent days, that mental link is starting to be broken as we know that, with vaccinations, high infection numbers need not necessarily mean more sickness and deaths.

Many people are now rightfully focusing on the number of people with severe illnesses. As of today, despite the higher infection cases over the past few days, that number is 14 and does not threaten our hospital capacity.

Many friends, including Members of this House, have been texting and asking me: why do we not publish the number of people with severe illnesses so that we know that vaccination works?

Actually, the media have been publishing these numbers every day for quite a while now. But our attention is always on the infection numbers. It is good that the attention is now shifting. I will not say that there is a huge psychological shift but I think the shift is starting to happen.

A second shift is a greater acceptance of differentiated safe management measures between those who are vaccinated and those who are not. There have been many calls to do this. Mr Xie Yao Quan has also asked about this.

This is something which the MTF has always intended to do. That was why we decided on the "two-five rule" for restaurants when the KTV cluster broke out. But it was scuttled with our reversion to Phase Two (Heightened Alert).

When our whole society is very highly vaccinated and we have transitioned to living with COVID-19, we should make very little differentiation between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. But during this period of transition, when we are still building up our resilience, differentiation by vaccination status is a practical way to open up some activities first while protecting those who are still vulnerable.

The MTF will revisit this during our Phase Two (Heightened Alert) midpoint review and Minister Lawrence Wong will speak more about that later.

Let me address several other questions from Members.

Mr Murali Pillai will be comforted to know that MOH actively monitors international developments in medical treatment options for COVID-19. This is done through the National Centre of Infectious Diseases (NCID) and an expert committee. They have developed national treatment guidelines which are constantly updated based on new evidence. They provide guidance to our doctors on the use of evidence-based medical treatment options for COVID-19 patients.

Our local institutions have also been participating actively in international multi-centre trials investigating novel COVID-19 therapeutics. These trials have generated important data on new COVID-19 treatments such as remdesivir.

We will continue to closely monitor developments in COVID-19 treatments, proactively procure therapeutic agents which are shown to be effective and maintain a stockpile based on projected needs.

To Mr Leon Perera’s question, factors that affect COVID-19 vaccine efficacy are an area of active study in Singapore. Persons who have contracted COVID-19 are clinically assessed for risk factors and scientific papers on the correlations may be published in future.

Antibody testing is not required after vaccination under Singapore’s National Vaccination Programme and we are actively reviewing the need for vaccine boosters. We are also continually reviewing Singapore’s portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines. We plan to bring in non-mRNA vaccines that are robustly assessed for quality, safety and effectiveness. This should happen before the end of the year, subject to supply and regulatory approval.

Testing will remain very important, even as we transit to living with COVID-19. Because it is only through testing that we can know if we are infected and do the civic-minded thing in excusing ourselves from work and staying home.

But we have to make testing simple, accessible and affordable, even more so than now, so that we can all do our part. I believe many Members have done the breathalyser testing just now. So, it is one example of a test that is non-intrusive, simple, easy, accessible and fast.

Since mid-June, we have progressively rolled out regular Fast and Easy Tests for staff working in higher-risk settings. This includes a network of 16 Quick Test Centres, which we intend to expand further. In response to Ms Joan Pereira’s question, the Quick Test Centres will support small businesses by allowing their staff to walk in and get themselves tested and have their results recorded. At some point, I believe, the Quick Test Centres should also be using breathalyser tests.

We will continue to work with NEA to deploy wastewater testing across Singapore. Mr Dennis Tan asked about this. Currently, NEA has deployed 270 auto-samplers across about 200 sites. Every site can have a few, two or more auto-samplers. We are increasing this to 500 auto-samplers across 400 sites by end of this year. Wastewater testing is an increasingly strategic resource as we learn to live with COVID-19. Where we place the sites is very important. We can deploy them in areas where we suspect transmission is happening, such as around the markets that are currently affected, or where we know many unvaccinated seniors live.

Such testing is non-intrusive and would give us valuable early warning when COVID-19 starts to take hold in a locality; we will know very early. And that will prompt us to take further public health measures in the affected residential estates.

Mr Darryl David, Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Mr Murali Pillai asked about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. MOH has been publishing monthly safety data updates on our website. It also gives an age breakdown of the affected persons and indeed, the majority are young people. As of 30 June 2021, HSA had received 12 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis occurring in persons after receiving a dose of the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. While there is a small increased risk among those in the younger age groups relative to the baseline rate, the local incidence rate remains low. One of the reported cases is a full-time National Serviceman in the Singapore Armed Forces who is below 30 years old. None of the cases was from the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force.

We implemented the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme or VIFAP to give greater peace of mind to people taking the vaccinations.

But remember that with or without vaccination, there is a baseline number of disease cases amongst our population. Since the vast majority of Singaporeans have stepped forward to be vaccinated, there will naturally be numerous incidents which just happen to coincide with vaccinations. Hence, we have to do what is practical and reasonable, which is to have VIFAP applications reviewed by a panel of medical experts, who will consider them against known evidence about the vaccines.

A few Members have also asked about the Sinovac vaccine. The Sinovac vaccine is called CoronaVac but we always just call it Sinovac. Sinovac is the company; the vaccine is CoronaVac but for simplicity, we just refer to it as the Sinovac vaccine. As at 25 July 2021, about 72,000 persons have received at least one dose of the Sinovac vaccine and about 17,000 persons have received their second doses. Amongst them, 28% are Singapore Citizens and they are mostly young. Of those who have taken the Sinovac vaccine, only 10% or in fact, less than 10% are Singaporean seniors above 60 years old.

If the supply of 200,000 doses which the Government has procured is insufficient to cater to the demand, private clinics can bring in additional supply, as is the case for any other WHO EUL vaccine under the Special Access Route.

As of 9 July 2021, HSA had received 10 adverse event reports following vaccination with the Sinovac vaccine. The events comprise mainly allergic reactions such as itch and rashes.

As for concessions on safe management measures, the data on the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine against the Delta variant is still building up. Sinovac has also recently submitted the required safety data for their application for the Pandemic Special Access Route approval to HSA.

HSA and our Expert Committee are going through the various data. When the evidence justifies it, we will certainly want to extend the concessions to individuals who have received the Sinovac or other vaccines which may qualify.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me conclude. As a Government, we need to recognise that our society is diverse, with different segments of the population having different opinions, needs and wants. When these differences cannot be reconciled, we agree to disagree, we live and let live. At the same time, we do our best to unite and forge a consensus, for what is a society without shared commonalities?

This is what a responsible Government needs to do across a range of issues: from education, healthcare and public housing, to racial harmony and free trade. We must always try to strike the right balance between forging a consensus as well as respecting diverse views.

It is the same when it comes to learning to live with COVID-19. On the one hand, we have the young, vaccinated individuals who feel that we should open up and allow vaccinated individuals to enjoy more social activities. On the other hand, we still have a sizeable segment of older Singaporeans who for medical or other reasons are yet to be vaccinated and who remain vulnerable.

Differentiated safe management measures is something we have to put in place for public health reasons and to protect the unvaccinated. At the same time, we must do our best to get more of the vulnerable vaccinated. As I reported just now, we are making progress.

As for the non-vulnerable, as more of you get vaccinated, when you show more consideration to others, you are also doing your part to better protect the vulnerable. Remember, our children, our nieces or nephews, younger brothers and sisters under 12, will not be vaccinated for a while yet.

When we work together as a people, we will bring ourselves to a much stronger and more resilient position and our transition to living with COVID-19 will gather pace.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, Singapore is one of the few countries to have come through the last 20 months of the pandemic with very few fatalities. And we can look forward with confidence to living with an endemic COVID-19 because a high proportion of our population will be fully vaccinated. Most of the developing world still has little access to vaccines. And even among the countries and regions which have the vaccines, Singapore is unique.

We have one group, including the US, UK, Israel and many EU countries, which went through major episodes of widespread transmission, hospitals overwhelmed, with many fatalities. They are now highly vaccinated and opening up their economies and societies. And then, there is another group, the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, maybe South Korea, who kept the pandemic under control, but are now finding it a challenge to get their people vaccinated, partly because their lives have not been very threatened by COVID-19.

This will make us perhaps the only country in the world, which has not suffered a collapse of our hospitals nor a high death toll and at the same time, achieved a very high vaccination rate in our population.

This uniqueness is due to the unity of our people, the trust amongst them and between the people and Government. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we can look towards the road ahead with confidence and optimism. [Applause.]

Mr Deputy Speaker: The Minister for Trade and Industry and the Minister for Finance will be making related Ministerial Statements. I would allow Members to raise points of clarification on all three Statements after the third Statement. Minister Gan.

3.41 pm

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Gan Kim Yong): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Minister Ong Ye Kung has given Members an update on the COVID-19 situation. Let me now share with Members our journey out of Phase Two (Heightened Alert) and towards a COVID-19-resilient state, from the point of view of businesses.

About a month ago, the MTF Co-Chairs wrote a commentary, outlining a future where Singapore can live normally with COVID-19. The virus is likely to become endemic eventually, like influenza, with the vast majority of us protected against the severe outcome of the virus, as long as we are fully vaccinated. We are not there yet and we need to press on with vaccination, especially among the elderly.

As we journeyed towards this destination, we were never under the illusion that it would be straightforward and we expected to face a few bumps along the way. The KTV and Jurong Fishery Port clusters are cases in point.

Like Minister Ong, I received many questions on whether our decision to return to Phase Two (Heightened Alert) signals a reversal of our plan to transition to a COVID-19-endemic state. The answer is a clear no.

We are determined to get to our destination of being a COVID-19-resilient Singapore. But our journey must take into consideration public health realities. Sometimes, we may need to take a detour if we see hazards ahead. This way, we can ensure that we will get to our final destination safely, even though it may take a little longer.

The last one and a half years has been a very difficult ride for our businesses. This is particularly so for sectors that are more affected by the tightening of Safe Management Measures, such as F&B, retail, sports and gyms and performance arts. I know that the impact on them must be very severe.

Minister Wong and I met the F&B and Retailers' Trade Associations last week. We appreciated their feedback, which helped MTI and MOF design the support packages for them as well as other affected businesses.

At the same time, I am heartened to see that many businesses have adapted their operations in response to the challenges. Food establishments and retail shops have leveraged online platforms and gyms have turned to virtual classes or moved some of their classes outdoors. Nevertheless, we know that these efforts are insufficient to fully compensate for the loss of income from their usual business model.

The aviation, tourism and MICE sectors have also been severely impacted due to travel restrictions. With Changi Airport's passenger load at only around 3% of pre-COVID-19 levels – 3%, not 30% – demand in these sectors have plummeted. Some firms have pivoted to adjacent areas. For example, Singapore Airlines is now using some of its passenger planes to operate cargo flights to take advantage of the increase in cargo traffic, while operators in the tourism sector have come up with new and creative products to attract local visitors as foreign tourists have dried up. The Singapore Rediscover Vouchers would have helped them somewhat.

The construction, marine and process sectors are also under tremendous pressure. They have had to make difficult but necessary worksite adjustments to protect workers' health and safety. At the same time, they have had to deal with labour shortages. As a result, many have faced project cancellations and delays or shied away from taking on new projects.

We fully understand the challenges and uncertainties that our businesses and their workers are going through. Since the start of this pandemic, MTI has worked closely with the industry and other Government agencies to help businesses cope.

We delivered eight Budgets over one and a half years including the Supplementary Supply Bill that we will be debating later, to marshal resources to support businesses and protect jobs. We introduced several schemes, such as the Jobs Support Scheme, Jobs Growth Incentive, rental relief and tax rebates. We ensured that firms that ran into cashflow problems could gain access to credit by enhancing our enterprise financing schemes and working with the banks to put in place a moratorium on loan repayment. Together, these efforts have helped avert massive business failures, a much deeper recession and higher unemployment.

Businesses and workers have told us that while these support measures have been critical and helpful, they can only serve as temporary pain relief. They would much prefer to resume their business fully and for the economy to grow again. Many are therefore transforming their businesses to seek out new opportunities and prepare for the recovery. I think this is the right attitude to have.

Even as we manage the short-term impact of the pandemic, we should not lose sight of the future. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on almost every single economy in the world, but those which can respond well and take the opportunity to adapt and transform quickly will emerge stronger and move ahead of others. To ensure that we do not get left behind once the dust settles, we must turn this once-in-a-generation crisis into a once-in-a-generation opportunity, to transform our businesses, develop new areas of growth and strengthen our connections to the global economy.

We recognise that it is not easy for businesses to juggle everyday challenges during the pandemic and the need to change and transform for the future. We need focused efforts. This is why we set up the Emerging Stronger Task force, or EST, at the height of the crisis in May last year, to look at how Singapore should refresh and re-imagine our economic strategies going forward. The EST formed nine Alliances for Action, or AfAs, as a new model of public-private partnership to allow our businesses to move quickly and bounce back stronger.

Some of the AfAs have delivered promising results. For example, the AfA on Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences enabled us to testbed several ideas for safe MICE events, which provided some relief for the MICE sector while also elevating its international profile. The AfA on Supply Chain Digitalisation saw the growing demand for supply chain transparency and resilience and created SGTraDex, which stands for Singapore Trade Data Exchange. As a digital infrastructure, SGTraDex allows businesses to share data with each other in a trusted and safe manner, thereby allowing them to optimise their supply chain flows through Singapore. With more trades coming through Singapore, our position as a key node in the global supply chain is further strengthened.

For sectors that are doing well despite the pandemic, the Government's focus is to add wind to their sails, to help them create new products, forge new partnerships and break into new markets. These include the financial, ICT, biomedical manufacturing and electronics sectors. In particular, the biomedical manufacturing sector expanded significantly by almost 25% last year, while the electronics sector grew around 12.5%. The AfA on medtech product development is another good example of our new partnerships. Recognising the increasing prevalence of infectious and chronic diseases, it identified in-vitro diagnostics as a key sub-sector that we can grow.

We will continue to work closely with industry and partner businesses in this endeavour to give them the support they need to raise their productivity, innovate and grow beyond our shores.

We will also help workers to be ready for the challenges in the new normal. As businesses transform to remain competitive and seize new opportunities, workers will also need to learn new knowledge and acquire new skills. The need for workers to upgrade and upskill is more urgent than ever.

The Government is committed to walking this journey with our workers, every step of the way. We introduced the SkillsFuture Movement in 2015 and intensified our efforts through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package since the pandemic started. We will work with MOM and the unions to encourage and support workers to tap on these schemes to stay relevant in their current jobs or retrain to enter new jobs. I also call on employers to continue working with the Government and the tripartite partners to upgrade and redesign jobs and invest in workforce training.

Even as we plan ahead, we know that businesses are naturally concerned about what an endemic state means for their daily operations and the adjustments they may need to make as we get there. Let me sketch out the path forward and give businesses a sense of what to expect to help them plan ahead. Some of the details are still being finalised and we will share them in future.

As our vaccination coverage increases, we will be in a much stronger position to ease our COVID-19 measures safely and confidently. We will begin to adjust our Safe Management Measures in stages, while keeping an eye on the number of serious cases. For example, restrictions on social gatherings will ease and we can expect larger dining-in group sizes and lower requirements and higher capacity for various events. We will take a differentiated approach: vaccinated individuals will be able to engage in a wider range of social activities and in larger groups, while those who are unvaccinated will only be able to do so with a negative Pre-Event Test (PET) result.

With this, F&B, retail and other businesses that provide in-person services, such as gyms and beauty services, will see a return in demand. Sectors, such as tourism, cruise and MICE will also get some relief as capacity limits are progressively raised, although foreign tourists will still take some time to return. Workplace restrictions will also be eased and progressively, more workers can go back to office. Businesses will be able to conduct important face-to-face meetings or hold workplace events that are important for networking or team-bonding.

Businesses can do several things to prepare for reopening. First, encourage and facilitate all medically-eligible employees, especially those involved in high-touch point activities, to get vaccinated and deploy those who cannot be vaccinated to lower-risk settings.

Second, integrate the use of ART self-tests into your work processes, especially for businesses that provide high touchpoint services or which tap on a pool of workers that frequently change. Encourage employees to self-isolate and get themselves tested if they are not feeling well or if they suspect they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Doing so can help detect cases early and limit the extent of disruption to your business. I know of several employers who have made bulk purchases of testing kits, so their staff can easily access them if needed. This is a good idea and I encourage more employers to do the same.

And third, continue allowing flexible work arrangements and putting in place business continuity plans to strengthen operational resilience.

We are also looking at relaxing our border restrictions safely. As a small and open economy, we simply do not have the luxury of closing ourselves off to the world. Many parts of our economy require a steady flow of people in and out of Singapore, be it workers or visitors. As a business hub, many of our executives have to travel to manage and grow their regional businesses. Our tourism and MICE industry, as well as our air hub status, also critically depend on international connectivity.

We should also not forget the international community based here. Many have not been able to return home to visit their families since the start of the pandemic. This is because if they go home, they may not be able to return to Singapore. There are also Singaporeans whose loved ones are stranded overseas. This has not been easy for many of them.

Therefore, as our vaccination coverage increases and the majority of residents here are protected against COVID-19, we will also progressively facilitate international travel with countries that have managed COVID-19 well and allow fully vaccinated persons to travel and to do business more freely. This is a critical move that will allow us to reassert Singapore's position as a business, travel and talent hub. We are working this out carefully and engaging our partner countries and will provide more details when ready.

We will continue to push for higher vaccination coverage and if the incidence of severe illness from COVID-19 remains low despite clusters emerging from time to time, we will eventually be able to arrive at a truly endemic state. Practically all social and workplace restrictions can be lifted, although some critical measures, such as mask-wearing and precautions for large events may remain. This means that domestically, infected cases will create much less disruption than they do today and our businesses can largely return to normal operations.

For the majority of cases, businesses will not have to shut down their premises for deep cleaning and we need not commit huge resources towards contact tracing. Instead, infected individuals with mild symptoms may be able to recover from home and close contacts will likely just be required to monitor their health without the need for quarantine or self-isolation. This is similar to how we treat influenza cases today.

Globally, Singapore will likely be one of the highest vaccinated countries in the world. We will be able to regain strong air and maritime connectivity to a large number of countries, while ensuring that our healthcare system is well-functioning and not over-stretched by COVID-19 cases. This will make us one of the best places to work and live in the region and across the world.

Businesses have in fact continued to show confidence in our strong fundamentals during the pandemic. Despite the challenging environment, investors committed S$17.2 billion in investment in 2020, the highest in 12 years. More recently, we also attracted significant investments from major biomedical and electronics companies, such as Sanofi in April, BioNTech in May and GlobalFoundries in June. But we cannot take this for granted. We will continue to work hard to pursue projects that help companies grow and create good jobs and meaningful careers for Singaporeans.

Before I end, I would like to thank Singaporeans, our businesses and our workers for walking this journey with us for the last 18 months. It has been tremendously difficult for many of you and we are deeply appreciative of the commitment and grit that you have shown.

We are so close to reaching the end of the tunnel. We will soon achieve a high vaccination coverage which will allow us to move decisively to a COVID-19-resilient state. I want to appeal to everyone to not lose heart and work together to press on in our journey. [Applause.]

Mr Deputy Speaker: Minister Wong.

3.59 pm

The Minister for Finance (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, like many countries around the world, our fight against COVID-19 has been difficult and full of ups and downs.

The latest outbreak is a major setback for all of us. Many have been surprised at the size of these new clusters. It shows how easy it is for the Delta variant to spread and cause large outbreaks with the potential to overwhelm our hospital system. Furthermore, in a mixed population of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons, we are more likely to see large clusters because vaccinated persons can be infected but experience very mild symptoms. Consequently, they may not realise they are infected and inadvertently, become asymptomatic carriers. By the time the cases pop up, days or even weeks would have passed and the infection would have spread to many people.

Because of these large clusters, we faced a heightened risk of widespread community transmission before we attained adequate vaccine protection. We must remember that the proportion of people with two doses and with two weeks after their second shot was still less than 50%. This was when we moved into Heightened Alert. And we are especially worried about our seniors because there are still over 200,000 seniors aged 60 and above who are not fully vaccinated. If they catch the virus, many would likely become severely ill or even succumb to the infection.

That is why, as you heard just now from my Co-Chairs just now, the MTF made the difficult decision to scale back activities and return to Phase Two (Heightened Alert). This will help to slow down transmission in the community and crucially, this will give us time to push up vaccination rates further and protect our seniors.

I know the restrictions have caused much inconvenience to everyone. We seek your forbearance and understanding. I hope our explanations will help you understand why we had to reintroduce these painful but necessary measures to protect our seniors.

We also know these measures will be difficult for our workers and businesses. This is why MOF announced a new $1.1 billion support package last Friday to cushion the impact. I will elaborate on this in my Statement later this afternoon on the Supplementary Supply Bill and we hope the support measures will help affected workers and businesses tide over the Heightened Alert period.

As we bring the current outbreak under control and continue to speed up vaccinations, we will be able to get our reopening plans back on track. The key is to open up at the correct juncture. Some countries have decided to open up fully, even though their vaccination rates are less than ideal. For example, the Netherlands lifted all restrictions when 45% of its population was fully vaccinated. Cases surged ten-fold to an average of 10,000 a day within two weeks. They have since reimposed restrictions. The UK has about 55% of its population fully vaccinated, although its coverage of its seniors is much higher at above 90%. It lifted all restrictions on 19 July, its "Freedom Day". Cases have surged to 50,000 a day, more than two-thirds of its peak in the last wave and are likely to rise further. Hospitalisation and death rates are starting to creep up again, almost entirely amongst unvaccinated individuals.

We are watching what is happening in these countries very closely. What is clear to the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) and our medical advisors is that we should be very careful about lifting restrictions when a significant proportion of our people are still not fully vaccinated, especially our more vulnerable seniors.

While other countries may have come to terms with a certain level of COVID-19 cases and even deaths, this is not the choice we want to make in Singapore. Here, we look out for one another and we take care of each other. We do not want to see large numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care, on oxygen supplementation, let alone succumbing to the virus. So, we must give our fellow Singaporeans more time. Today, many younger Singaporeans are still waiting for their second dose of the vaccine. And many of our seniors who had been hesitant about getting vaccinated are now starting to step forward. So, we will see continued improvements in our vaccination rates.

At the same time, there is no need to wait for everyone to be vaccinated before we begin to open up. That would mean holding back the entire re-opening timeline until much later in the year, which is not tenable.

So, what is our approach? Let me explain.

We will synchronise our reopening with our vaccination coverage, not just of the overall population, but also amongst our seniors, who are the most vulnerable. And we will do so in a series of controlled steps. So, this is what we can all expect in the weeks ahead.

In early August, at the midpoint of the Phase Two (Heightened Alert) period, we plan to review the current set of measures. We will assess the overall infection situation. We will also monitor the status of the infected cases to confirm that the link between infection and hospitalisation has been weakened by the vaccines, like in the chart which Minister Ong showed just now. Importantly, by then, two-thirds of our population would have received two doses and we would have vaccinated about three-quarters of our seniors aged 70 and above. So, if the clusters are under control and hospitalisation rates remain low, we will be able to ease some of the Phase Two (Heightened Alert) measures.

But the easing will be differentiated and extended to only vaccinated persons because they are much better protected against the effects of the virus. This means that if you want to attend a large event or a religious service involving more than 100 persons, you have to be fully vaccinated. If you want to go out to dine in a restaurant or work out in a gym, you have to be fully vaccinated.

By around early September, we expect to vaccinate about 80% of our population with two doses and we hope to cover a similar proportion of our seniors aged 70 and above. We would then be able to ease the restrictions further, including allowing larger groups to get together, especially if they are fully vaccinated. We would also begin to reopen our borders, especially for vaccinated persons to travel. We will start by establishing travel corridors with countries or regions that have managed COVID-19 well and where the infection is similarly under control. Fully vaccinated persons will then be able to travel to these countries or region without needing to serve the full 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) in a hotel when they return. Depending on the risk level of the country they visit, we will either replace the SHN with a rigorous testing regime or shorten the SHN to seven days at home. This will allow vaccinated persons to travel more freely. Those who are not vaccinated can still travel, but will be subject to the prevailing SHN requirements.

Beyond that, we will continue with a series of progressive easings. As we do, we must expect cases to rise. Partly because there is still ongoing cryptic transmission in our community, which can easily break out into new clusters with increased activity levels. Also, as we open our borders for people to travel without SHN, we will see more imported cases and infected persons slipping through from time to time. But at that stage, as you heard just now, our main focus would no longer be on daily case numbers. Because the vast majority by then would have been vaccinated and even if they caught the virus, they would be much less likely to become very ill. Instead, our focus will be on the much smaller number of infected persons who need supplementary oxygen or require intensive care.

So, at each stage of easing, we will monitor the health outcomes, especially the hospitalisation and ICU cases, closely. We will ensure that these remain acceptable and stable before we proceed to the next step. But if hospitalisation cases, or worse, severe illnesses were to shoot up, we will have to be prepared to slow down, or even pull back.

In particular, we have to expect new variants to emerge, which may be more transmissible, more lethal, or more successful at evading the present vaccines. We will find solutions to these variants, especially through booster shots or updated vaccines, which we may need to roll out nationwide. But we must be prepared that the new variants can lead to more severe outbreaks and may well force us to introduce restrictions again from time to time.

In short, there are still considerable uncertainties about how the pandemic will unfold globally. But our best bet is to push ahead with a high level of vaccine coverage for our people. This will give us the best chance to resume more normal lives, while keeping our morbidity and mortality rates low.

I have provided an overview of the roadmap for our transition to a COVID-19-resilient society, where we learn to live with COVID-19 as part of our daily lives. The MTF is still fleshing out the details and we will share more when ready. I assure everyone that we are committed to seeing through these plans.

The current Heightened Alert is a temporary, limited timeout. With better vaccination coverage, we will soon be able to resume our plans to reopen progressively, while keeping everyone safe.

But I underline: vaccination is key, especially vaccination for our seniors. If many among our seniors are not vaccinated, we will continue to worry about our hospitalisation and ICU cases, as well as fatalities. So, I make a special plea to all who remain unvaccinated or have not registered to be vaccinated, especially our parents and grandparents: please come forward. And if you cannot get out of the house, we will send a team to your homes for the vaccination.

As part of our controlled and phased reopening, Safe Management Measures (SMMs) will still remain relevant and important. Basic SMMs like keeping a safe distance from others and wearing a mask can help reduce transmission effectively. So, we must stay disciplined and continue to maintain these practices, even as we transition towards the new normal. For example, we would probably not want to do away completely with our mask requirements. We may consider dispensing with masks when outdoors, but it would still make sense to wear them in an indoor enclosed environment where transmission risks are greater. So, this may well be one of the last rules to go in the new normal.

At the same time, we will continue with our regular enforcement checks and take strict actions against any breaches of the rules. Several Members have asked questions about this, especially how our nightlife establishments are monitored and I believe Minister Shanmugam will be sharing more on this later, especially efforts by MHA and the Police.

But let me just say that our enforcement agencies are doing everything they can, under very challenging circumstances. Since April last year, a multi-agency task force comprising various Government agencies, including the Police, have been coordinating the enforcement of Safe Management and Safe Distancing Measures in public venues, including F&B outlets and massage and spa establishments. They have been doing daily enforcement checks. Where laws were flouted, offenders, both operators and individuals, have been taken to task and cases publicised. Our Safe Distancing Ambassadors and enforcement officers will continue to do their best and we should give them our full support.

Most importantly, we must all do our part and continue to exercise individual and social responsibility. We cannot rely on enforcement efforts alone to get us through this pandemic. Our society will be much safer if we demonstrate social solidarity and a collective sense of responsibility to do the right things together.

There are a few simple but very effective precautions which we should all incorporate into our daily routines. I have said probably like a million times but I think it is worth repeating. Practise good personal hygiene. If you are not feeling well, stay home. See a doctor and get yourself tested. Do so even if you are vaccinated. Remember what I said earlier at the start that vaccinated persons can get infected and may feel very mild symptoms or even no symptoms. So, if you are feeling unwell – even vaccinated – feeling unwell with very mild symptoms, get yourself tested. If you receive an SMS alert, come forward to be tested as soon as possible and minimise your social interactions until you have a confirmed negative test result.

There is no excuse not to be tested, since testing is now more affordable, accessible and convenient than it used to be and will continue to be so in the future. The Antigen Rapid Test Kits – self-test kits – are widely available at all general retailers now. If you buy in bulk, it is cheaper too. So, you can buy a few and have them at home.

The MTF is also distributing these test kits to households. We are starting with those who live near markets where large clusters have been identified and we will progressively scale up and distribute to everyone in Singapore. As you heard just now, we are also rolling out new methods of testing, be it wastewater surveillance in our estates, or breathalyser tests at our checkpoints. Now, we have the breathalyser test in Parliament too before each Parliamentary session. So, regular testing and the social consciousness to get ourselves tested regularly, will protect us and keep us safe as we transit to the new normal.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are all disheartened and upset when we hear of people breaking the rules, acting irresponsibly and causing new clusters to break out. But over the past year and a half, the vast majority of Singaporeans have shown tremendous discipline.

Many have also been working tirelessly in our fight against COVID-19. It is not just our healthcare workers like our doctors and nurses at our hospitals, clinics and community care facilities. It is also our fellow Singaporeans on the frontlines elsewhere, some in less expected settings, others in less visible places. They include our Safe Distancing Ambassadors, food delivery riders, cleaners and many more. They work hard to keep Singapore going and to keep all of us safe.

Like Mr Lok Chun Kiet, a cleaner with CBM Pte Ltd. He attends to high-risk locations where positive cases have been detected. The cleaning work that he does is not easy under normal circumstances. But now, with the exposure to the virus, he and his team have to put on full personal protective equipment (PPE) and adhere closely to stringent procedures while they work. It is because of people like Chun Kiet and his team that we are able to quickly deep-clean our infected premises and minimise the risks of fomite transmissions.

Or Ms Siti Zulaina Bte Md Said, a senior medical technologist with the National Public Health Laboratory at the NCID. She leads the team to investigate outbreaks and undertake testing surveillance. It is mission-critical work that requires long hours, stretching into weekends and public holidays. You can imagine the load coming through recently with the surge of cases we have had in the community. It is because of people like Siti and her team that we are able to detect and ringfence infections early.

There are many more Chun Kiets and Sitis out there. Many more unsung heroes and heroines quietly and steadfastly contributing to our fight against COVID-19. I am sure the entire House will join me in saying to all of them a big heartfelt "Thank You". [Applause.]

Sir, these actions of our fellow Singaporeans inspire us and give us confidence and hope that we will get through this together. We are all disappointed by the latest outbreak and the Heightened Alert restrictions. But we will recover and bounce back.

It is always darkest before the dawn. So, let us be strong and keep the faith. The dawn is coming. Let us approach it with renewed strength as one people. [Applause.]

Mr Deputy Speaker: Minister K Shanmugam.

4.18 pm

The Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law (Mr K Shanmugam): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to address some of the questions that have been raised in relation to the enforcement against KTV outlets, specifically.

In this House and outside, there have been a number of questions related to KTVs: why were KTVs and nightclubs allowed to operate as F&B outlets; the enforcement regime in respect to these outlets; why were hostesses allowed in those places; and the immigration status of these providing hostessing service at these places.

For example, I can refer to a Facebook post by Mr Alan John, former editor of The Straits Times, raising some of these questions in a very succinct way and making a number of fair points based on his understanding of the facts. I will address these questions.

First, why were KTVs allowed to change into F&B operations?

During the circuit breaker last year, nightlife outlets were shut from 27 March 2020, together with many other businesses. From Phase Two in June 2020, many businesses were allowed to reopen, including dine-in at F&B outlets. Massage establishments were also allowed to open with conditions but KTVs were not allowed to reopen. We took a stricter approach with KTVs because singing was considered a high-risk activity in an indoor setting and has a higher risk of transmission.

In August 2020, the Singapore Nightlife Business Association (SNBA), the Singapore Entertainment Affiliation (SEA), other associations as well as individual businesses appealed for KTVs to re-open. They had been closed by then for several months. Jobs, the livelihoods of those in the KTV industries, the workers and their jobs were at risk and badly affected even with financial support from the Government.

Our assessment is that they probably employ about 10,000 local workers as of end 2019. Some of us met directly with the KTV businesses in August 2020 and listened to them. There were several townhall sessions.

They asked to have singing and dancing to resume and they proposed a pilot with a maximum of five persons in a room. Masks would be worn when not singing and disposable microphone covers would be used and they referred to other countries, including South Korea, where this had been allowed.

Others proposed changing their business models to F&B outlets. They needed help to get new permits, change their use for F&B and so on; and for many, the situation was desperate.

We considered their suggestions and weighed the risks. At one time, we considered possibly allowing a pilot project for KTVs with very strict conditions but eventually we did not proceed.

So, the first point to note is that from March 2020 until now, KTV operations remain forbidden. It is illegal to have any kind of KTV operations. We did not allow those.

Then, to the group that had asked to move over to provide F&B on a temporary basis, we said okay to that; again, with several conditions. Why? Because basically, anyone can offer and open an F&B outlet. The Government cannot specifically say no to KTV outlets which want to become F&B outlets, provided they have the space to be an F&B outlet, the premises allow F&B outlets and they can get the approval from Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the land-use permissions and so on.

And conditions were imposed. The pivoted businesses would need a food preparation area to prepare and serve food, adequate indoor dining area for customers to be seated, to have their meals and with safe distancing in place. Once converted to F&B, they were subject to the same safe management measures (SMMs) imposed on F&B outlets, meaning no inter-mingling amongst patrons and staff, no live music, no performances and various other conditions.

So, in summary, from March 2020: one, KTVs were not to operate; and two, some KTVs were allowed to become F&B outlets; as well as some pubs and bars, as they were also allowed to pivot to F&B outlets.

So, as of March of this year, after several months of operations of these massage establishments, former pubs, bars and KTV businesses pivoting to being F&B outlets and so on, the situation was stable and the number of infections was generally low. So, that is the context and the background to why pubs, bars and KTV outlets were allowed to pivot and provide F&B.

Secondly, it has been suggested that we should have assumed or known that KTV operators will cheat and allow themselves to become semi-brothels even though they were only allowed to provide F&B. There have been suggestions ranging from: we were in effect in cahoots with KTVs, which is a suggestion in a recent and quite unbalanced Nikkei article; or alternatively, we were very naive to not realise what happens at KTVs.

The truth – we were neither in cahoots with the KTV operators nor are we as naive as some suggested. Let me explain.

I think most people will accept it will be wrong to treat all the 430-odd businesses – KTV operators, pubs and bars – who want to change to provide F&B automatically as crooks. Several are genuine operators. They want to pivot over to provide F&B, that is the only way they can survive.

If you ask SNBA and SEA, there are KTVs which cater to families, there are many which do legitimate business and they were crying out for help. More than 400 such businesses converted and about 100 exited the nightlife industry.

At the same time, we were considering this, that yes, MTF and the Government do know that there are some KTV operations, pubs and bars with dodgy reputations. Should we have said to them, "No, you cannot convert to F&B"? For some, if you look at their premises, darkened rooms, not the most optimal for dining and people might well say, "Why would I want to go here for dining?" It appears common sensical to say this is dodgy and doubtful.

But in law, it is not so straightforward. If a person comes to you and says, "Yes, I want to convert and I will keep to the rules. My business was perfectly legal in the past and now, I will continue to be legal." Then, the agencies will have to look him in the eye and say, "You cannot get a licence to become a food place because we do not think you are going to keep to the law in future. We think you are going to break the law, even though you have committed no offence and even though you confirm that you will follow the rules." I will come back to this later.

So, in addition to seeing if we can say no to those with dodgy reputations, part of the answer has got to be enforcement. I will also say, realistically, the people who are going to cheat, going to do illegal things, will do them anyway. They will use lounges, flats, warehouses, various places. It has gone on and I am sure it goes on, regardless of whether we allow the change to F&B. And there have been several illegal operations in different places outside of KTV outlets or ex-KTV outlets which have been busted.

As of November 2020, it was a risk-assessed approach and in general, it was working if you look at it as of March this year with a relatively low number of cases. We then had the Delta variant, completely different transmissibility. That variant came into the KTVs and created a cluster.

There is some public confusion. The Minister for Health, my colleague, has spoken about it a number of times to clarify it. The confusion is that the KTV cluster was somehow the reason for the recent Phase Two (Heightened Alert) tightened restrictions imposed on 22 July, but that is not so. He has clarified it. It is not so.

If we had only the KTV cluster, then we would not have had to move to Phase Two (Heightened Alert) or the tightened restrictions. In fact, the MTF, as the Minister pointed out, considered the KTV cluster and decided we can manage it without having to impose any additional restrictions. As he has said in his speech, the KTV cluster has been brought under control fairly quickly: tracing, testing, ringfencing the cases. So, we have about five new cases linked to the KTV cluster each day for the past few days. He gave you the figures. I have the figures as of 24 July: 232 cases, 49 in the hospital, none have been in or are in the ICU.

So, let me summarise by making three points. About 430 businesses pivoted to F&B for several months. Cases of infections overall in Singapore were low. The new Delta variant caused a KTV cluster that has been brought under control. And finally, if we were facing only the KTV cluster, there would have been no need for any tightened measures.

The tightening of the measures was due to the cluster at the Jurong Fishery Port (JFP). It has spread from the ports to the markets and the hawkers and into the wider community. My colleagues have explained how this happened.

Some are under the misimpression that the virus went from the KTVs to the fishery port. The evidence that we have does not suggest that. The virus seems to have come from the region to our port, JFP.

With this background, there is a live issue which I will share with Members. The SNBA has sent an open letter, appealed for the industry to work more closely with the Government to report illegal activities, among other things, and they have also pointed out pivoting has helped many legitimate businesses to survive.

So, should we allow them to reopen and continue as F&B operations? This brings me to the earlier question I posed. Some of them, when you look at the premises, you do question if they can really be F&B, but it requires us to say, flat out, to the operators, "Regardless of what you say, I am not going to believe you and I am not going to allow you to operate as an F&B". Agencies are working on the conditions that can be imposed like CCTVs, various other conditions, over and above what is applied to F&B outlets. They will also have to consult with the AGC, "Can we say no to an operator if we think it might be dodgy, even if the operators undertake to comply with the conditions?" It is not so straightforward. Once these issues are assessed, the MTF has to decide on whether the opening or reopening can be allowed.

I will now deal with the questions which have been raised on enforcement. During the period October 2020 to 10 July 2021, the Police conducted 202 operations against pivoted outlets as well as other outlets which were operating illegally. So, this is what I said earlier. Assume we had said no to all pivoting of F&B operations, there would still be places which offer sex and meet-up opportunities; that was always going to happen. So, we had one Police operation every single day on average since October 2020. This, I think, should put to rest any questions about enforcement actions by the Police; one operation every day. That has resulted in the detection of 58 Public Entertainment Act, Liquor Control Act infringements, 595 SMM breaches, 142 arrests for offences under various laws including the Public Entertainment Act, Liquor Control Act, Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, Immigration Act; not all in pivoted places but also completely illegal operations.

To share a few examples, in October 2020, Police raided units along Ubi Road and Kallang Pudding Road, 57 persons were investigated for breach of SMMs. In November at Genting Lane, 24 persons were investigated for breach of SMMs, 10 women were arrested for work pass-related offences. In February 2021 at Admiral Hill Road and, again, at Genting Lane, 88 persons investigated for breach of SMMs, one man arrested for working without a valid work permit. In April, at Kitchener Road and Verdun Road, 45 persons investigated for breach of SMMs, seven men and one woman arrested. In all the cases, items such as karaoke equipment, liquor, were seized; operators are being investigated.

Enforcement operations were also conducted over 20 weekends at every single festive occasion since October 2020. About 400 F&B outlets including pivoted outlets were inspected in each operation. To date, agencies have imposed around 100 closure orders on F&B outlets including on about 40 pivoted outlets. As I said to the House just now, there were about 437 pivoted outlets, so roughly 10% have been acting illegally and about 60 other F&B outlets also were in breach. So, SFA has revoked the food licence of seven pivoted outlets as of 23 July.

Let me now move to this business of hostesses. Since the onset of COVID-19, the rules are that hostessing is not allowed in any setting. The women who were caught were likely in breach of their visit or work pass conditions and they were operating illegally. The first woman linked to the KTV cluster, much attention has centred on her, had come into Singapore in February 2021, through the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category, under what we call the Familial Ties Lane and I will refer to it as FTL, sponsored by a Singapore Citizen who applied for her on the basis that he was her boyfriend.

Let me explain this boyfriend/girlfriend category. At the start of COVID-19 last year, we banned short-term visitors from coming into Singapore. So, as of September last year, the ban on short-term visitors continued. Basically, only Singaporean residents can come back, some of their relatives and some business travellers. In October last year, we introduced flexibility to allow boyfriends and girlfriends to come into Singapore. And why? We had almost a complete ban on short-term visitors, so boyfriends/girlfriends could not come in. There were many appeals.

For background reference, between 2000 and 2019, there were about 120,000 Singapore Citizens who married non-residents. About one in four citizen marriages were between Singaporeans and non-resident partners. So, it is quite common for Singaporeans to have relationships with non-Singaporeans. This boyfriend/girlfriend category was specifically introduced in the context of the ban on short-term visitors, to allow Singaporeans who were in relationships with foreign partners to be reunited because they had been separated for a long time due to border restrictions. This was after numerous appeals on this were received.

Meanwhile, there was a parallel development around September/October 2020. We announced Unilateral Opening to specific countries and regions which were of lower COVID-19 risk, including Vietnam, Brunei, New Zealand, Australia except Victoria state. Our assessment was the risk of importation of the virus was assessed to be low.

Vietnam, specifically, had a comprehensive public health surveillance system, had displayed successful control over COVID-19 at that time. In the last four weeks of September 2020, it had zero local COVID-19 cases. So, under the Unilateral Opening, travellers could seek entry into Singapore by applying for an Air Travel Pass and this means short-term travellers from these countries were allowed to come in.

In February 2021, due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, we suspended the Unilateral Opening between Singapore and Vietnam, which meant that short-term travellers from Vietnam could not come in from February 2021 under the Unilateral Opening.

ICA then began to receive many applications for Vietnamese to come into Singapore under the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category; people are quite inventive. So, to emphasise, once we suspended the Unilateral Opening with Vietnam in February 2021, there were many applications under the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category. We looked at it, scratched our heads, the applications raised concerns.

I will just give examples. There will be one Vietnamese applicant and multiple sponsors claiming to be the lady's boyfriend. There will be Singaporean sponsors, many who applied for multiple girlfriends. It is possible. But sponsors who are already married to someone else applying. Many men claiming to be a single lady's boyfriend, I mentioned it earlier. And sponsors who are unable to substantiate when we asked questions, "What relationship do you really have with this person who is proposed to become sponsored?"

But as Members of Parliament will know, the residents will come to the Members of Parliament and say, "I am a Singapore Citizen, I have done National Service, why are you not allowing my girlfriend to come in?" We all have received such appeals. ICA has received them! But when we looked at these applications for girlfriends and they are all primarily girlfriends, to come in, we decided this would not do, we have to stop this. So, in March 2021, this "girlfriend/boyfriend" category was removed. You can no longer appeal for a boyfriend or girlfriend to come in.

ICA moved quite fast. In February, the Unilateral Opening with Vietnam was suspended. The next month, in March, the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category was scrapped because we took the view that this was being abused.

We created this "boyfriend/girlfriend" category during a pandemic last year in October because we wanted to be compassionate. If you wanted to rank the organisations in terms of compassion, I do not think most people will put ICA at number one on the list. And MHA will not usually be accused of being the most compassionate either.

But we did want to try and be compassionate and helpful because of the number of appeals and people want their loved ones to come in and we want to try and help. But if the system is abused, then we have to stop it. If it is mutated, we have to stop it. But, unfortunately, what that means is that many legitimate applications are now being refused. ICA has also taken action in respect of dodgy applications by rescinding the approvals, barring the travellers from entry into Singapore and suspending the sponsors and travellers from future applications.

Apart from the FTL category, we have other avenues for foreigners to enter into Singapore during this pandemic but very limited. They include MOM's Work Pass Holder Lane and MOE's Student's Pass Holder lane. Applicants are required to submit their application to MOM and MOE respectively for entry approval and are subject to screening, obviously.

There are also short-term visitors who were already in Singapore before the border controls were imposed in March 2020. For these persons, ICA assesses their application for extensions of their Short-Term Visit Pass on a case-by-case basis. It takes into consideration factors including restrictions on international travel, flight availability and whether the applicants have family ties in Singapore.

Tying that back to the Police's recent operations against nightlife outlets, 29 women, aged between 20 and 47, of various nationalities, have been arrested for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and other laws. The 29 include Permanent Residents, Work Pass holders, S Pass holders, Short-Term Pass holder; one who came in under the Unilateral Opening, five who had come in under the "girlfriend" category; Long-Term Visit Pass holders, other passes, Student Pass, Dependant's Pass.

Permanent Residents, unlikely to have committed any offence except for maybe safe distancing measures. Others on Work Pass would be in breach of their Work Pass conditions if they were performing services as hostess, but those on visit passes would be in breach as well by working without a Work Permit. But if they say they were not working, then we have to show that they were in breach. And it is often cat and mouse. And as Members will know, we cannot use the TraceTogether data for this.

So far, 16 women have had their passes cancelled and they have been or will be deported. Investigations are ongoing in respect of the other women. And, of course, the operators' operations, some of them are pivoted outlets, several of them are not, in other places, in warehouses and so on. We continuously have to look for them, rely on tip-offs as well as our own intelligence and keep trying to keep it under control.

Sir, I think I have dealt with many of the questions that have been raised.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.

4.44 pm

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have a few questions for Minister MTI, Mr Gan Kim Yong and originally, Minister for Health, but I think I will direct them to the Minister for Home Affairs.

The first series of questions pertain to the differentiated regime between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, which is part of the coming to terms and treating COVID-19 as endemic in the community. The query pertains to the negative pre-event tests that unvaccinated individuals will be required to undertake. A few days ago in Israel, the Prime Minister announced that the unvaccinated individual there will pay for the test. I do not believe Minister clarified who pays for that test in Singapore. So, it would be helpful for the Minister to clarify that.

The second question directed at Minister Gan pertains to supply issues of the vaccine. I think, previously, in updates that the MTF had given, is this still a problem or are we on track to open the economy in concert with the plan that MTF has announced, by, I believe, it is September now?

The questions specifically on the KTV issues, indeed, as Minister Ong Ye Kung has mentioned earlier, lots of disappointment amongst Singaporeans, but I thought it would be important to have at least some understanding of common facts before coming to conclusions.

So, the first question is with regard to the enforcement regime at the pivoted establishments, was it a heightened sort of enforcement regime? The Minister mentioned a few numbers – 202 enforcements from October last year to July this year. But was there some specific attention paid on pivoted KTV establishments? I think earlier on, Minister Lawrence Wong spoke in a Facebook post about a cat and mouse game. The Minister referred to that as well. Were additional conditions imposed on certain operators in view of their past record or reputation, so to speak? And in this regard, again, was there a differentiated regime from the enforcement agencies to pay more attention to some of these establishments?

The Minister spoke of, I think, a total of seven establishments – and I stand corrected if I am wrong – seven establishments that have seen their licences revoked but about 10% of the pivoted KTV establishments have been in breach of regulations. Are the licences for that 10% – which I think will extend to 40 establishments – going to be revoked as well?

And, finally, I have received some emails from members of the public about warnings that they have given the authorities about some of these KTV establishments. How many warnings or pieces of feedback did – not just MHA but also MOH and the other agencies – receive on egregious SMM violations in KTV establishments?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Let me first address the question on economic reopening. It is still on track and the key is to look at the progress in our vaccination programme, which, as Minister for Health has explained just now, is picking up momentum. But it is important for us to focus a lot more on the vaccination of our senior population which is of a greater concern to all of us. As soon as we are able to reach our vaccination rate of 80% and above around September or October, we will be able to move in a bigger way to reopen the economy.

But I also want to point out that we are not likely to have a big bang reopening because it is important for us, as Minister Ong and I have mentioned earlier, to continue to monitor the number of severe cases. If we do have many serious cases, we will have a problem with the capacity of our healthcare system which will then result in a higher mortality rate. So, we need to continue to keep an eye on our number of serious cases and at the same time, make sure that our vaccination rate is high. Then, we will be able to progressively, step-by-step, reopen our economy or open up our borders to allow for travel in and out of Singapore. And as I have mentioned in my speech, these details are still being worked out and we will share more details later on.

I will ask Minister Lawrence Wong to talk about testing because this relates to the national policy on testing.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Thank you. The question, I believe, was about who pays for the cost of tests, if the person is unvaccinated, to get into a venue. The thinking is that the rule is that for certain activities, certain settings, we will require vaccinated persons only. And from the Government's side, the rule will be that if the person is not vaccinated, not fully vaccinated, then he will have to produce a confirmed negative test. That is the requirement.

How to go about that? We will let venue operators and owners decide. They may want to do it free. They may want to set up an operation. A restaurant might want to do that; a venue operator might want to do that; a MICE event organiser might want to do that, because it says, "Look, I want to do that to let unvaccinated persons come in." If not, then, he may well say, "Look, it is up to the individual. The individual has to go to the clinic, get a test and then show me the result."

So, the Government sets the rule, the framework. Individual organisations that are looking at the framework can then decide whether or not they want to provide the test for their customers, or if they will require their customers to get the test from a clinic.

Mr K Shanmugam: As I noted, I think there were four questions, if I got it right, from Mr Pritam Singh.

First, on the enforcement regime, I think Mr Singh wanted to know if it is heightened. We can assume that if there was one enforcement action per day, it is quite intense and it has been so from October of last year to July of this year, right from the beginning. This is quite apart from what Safe Distancing Ambassadors and so on do.

Second, I think Mr Singh wanted to know if there was a particular focus on pivoted outlets. I gave the breakdown just now. Not all were targeted at pivoted outlets. In fact, there were a number who were not to be operating at all and, in fact, totally illegal operations. And I would say, in terms of seriousness, those are particularly pernicious, in terms of transmission, the kind of activities and so on. And nothing is supposed to be happening in a warehouse. They set up and they do everything. So, those kinds of operations were busted as well. So, a broad range and also F&B operations which were not pivoted operations, just simply reopening. Also, some of them had been in breach. Do not mistake me to think that every single one was, therefore, engaging in what we might consider to be shady activities. Sometimes, there were breaches also. But we needed to target a broad range.

Third, I think Mr Singh wanted to know – seven have been closed, but I pointed out that 10% were in breach, about 40-odd out of the 400 which had pivoted. And are they going to be closed? I assume Mr Singh is not asking for the closing down of every operation as long as there is any breach. There is a framework. Depending on the nature of the breach, there will be a penalty. The penalty is transparent and the penalty will be imposed according to the kind of breach that has been committed. And I think most people will know that there is also a point system for breaches which lead to closure. Of course, got egregious breaches, there will be closure. But I would not ascribe to Mr Singh the suggestion that Police now should get even tougher and just close everyone down as long as there is one breach.

The last point I think was whether warnings given by the public were taken seriously. I do not do the operations obviously, but I think most Members will know how, in general, the Police intel system is expected to work. Police have their own intelligence framework, their own ground framework and public tip-offs. A lot of crimes are solved by public tip-offs and they are important, they are taken seriously and I assume that goes into the assessment framework on what operations to conduct.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: There is a last question by Mr Pritam Singh on vaccine supplies. Supplies continue to be in shortage throughout the world. Many developing countries are still trying to secure supplies and, in the earlier stage of the pandemic, we, too, were short of supplies. But, fortunately, we had negotiated advance purchase agreements (APAs) with major suppliers in the early stage of the pandemic. And, lately, we were able to bring forward and confirm some of the deliveries. So, as of now, for the past month or two, we have not had a supply problem. Our constraint now is we need more people, especially our seniors, to come forward and get vaccinated.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Minister Gan, you have a clarification?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, I just wanted to add a point to what Minister Lawrence Wong had explained on the testing strategy. As time goes on, the testing system will also evolve. For example, in time to come, if you have gotten a negative test result, you may be able to attend multiple events and multiple premises. So, it is not just one event to one test. So, we just have to bear that in mind.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Nadia Samdin.

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker and thank you to the Ministers for the update. I have two groups of clarification points.

The first is stemming from a worry about discrimination on treatment between those who have been vaccinated versus those who are unable to and those who do not wish to be vaccinated and the treatment that they receive. On the one hand, I empathise and hear the calls of those saying, "What is the point of being vaccinated if I am still faced with certain restrictions or why are we being penalised?" But at the same time, I know full well the impact of some of those who are unvaccinated for various medical reasons, in particular, our seniors and the social impact of the isolation not being able to be involved in activities.

As such, I wonder if, in the TraceTogether app, for example, we might consider amending it to show those who are vaccinated, those who are not vaccinated and those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and if there can be differentiation of treatment. If so, how? And also, how this might take into account, for example, families who have seniors or children who are unable to be vaccinated.

Moving to my second group of clarification points, I think we have spoken about the KTV cluster. But I would also like to ask about the Jurong Fishery Port cluster as this spread has impacted stallholders, workers and residents alike in both my Cheng San and Chong Boon markets as well as food centres.

Firstly, with the closure of Jurong Fishery Port and seafood stalls in the markets, what is the impact on the supply of our seafood and what are the measures which have been taken to mitigate disruption to these supplies?

Secondly, some are also very worried about the safety of eating seafood during this time. Could the Minister please elaborate what led to the spread of COVID-19 in the Jurong Fishery Port, whether there are clearer findings on the mechanism of transmission of COVID-19 into the Port and subsequently into our local markets and whether our seafood is safe for consumption?

Finally, as we look towards reopening, while we understand that there have been efforts to make the operations at the Port contactless, we also understand that it is hard work and working in the markets can be strenuous and there are, inevitably, close interactions between the workers. Do our SMMs need changing and how can we ensure the safe reopening of Jurong Fishery Port and our markets and hawker centres?

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Thank you. I will provide some answers, then I will invite Minister Grace Fu to supplement with her clarifications.

First, on the differentiation. I would not call it discrimination because there are good public health reasons to differentiate the treatment between those who are vaccinated and not vaccinated. The differentiation helps protect those who are not vaccinated. The Member asked about whether TraceTogether app can indicate vaccination status. I believe it already does. Mine does; it says that I am vaccinated. You can check yours.

Second is that children or seniors who, because of medical conditions, are not allowed to be vaccinated, whether they get left out. Earlier on, when we came out with the "two-five rule", one of the criticisms is that it was so confusing. And indeed, the confusion arises because of the exemptions we were trying to give. For example, in a group of five, all vaccinated, but you allow up to two children below 12 who cannot get vaccinated, but can join part of the group. So, I think, when we do our mid-term review, we will also take into account these provisions. And as for those who cannot be vaccinated or unvaccinated for some reason, but want to join such a group, we had earlier also allowed them to take a PET (Pre-event Test). If you are negative, you can join the group. This is something we will consider as we do our mid-term review.

Lastly, I do want to reiterate a point I made earlier. When we get to a very high level of vaccination rate, there should be very little differentiation between vaccinated and unvaccinated, because collectively, we will be very resilient. By then, there will probably be justification for lesser differentiation.

As for the point on whether seafood is safe, seafood is absolutely safe to consume. How did the virus get into the Jurong Fishery Port? As I mentioned earlier, phylogenetic study shows that there is likely to be multiple points of entry because there are slight genetic differences in the virus and the infections across the cluster. We will continue to see if we can trace the sources of the infections. But as of now, it does not help us to suppress the cluster. It helps us understand the infections, the infiltration, how it happened and it helps us strengthen the safe management measures in future.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Minister Grace Fu.

5.02 pm

The Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien): Thank you, Deputy Speaker for allowing me to address the clarifications that Ms Nadia Samdin has sought. Because of the important impact that the cluster has on this topic, I think it is important for us to give the House an account on the Jurong Fishery Port (JFP) as well as our food supply and its impact on hawker centres and markets. So, with your permission, Deputy Speaker, may I address some of the Parliamentary Questions (PQs) that Members have filed on a related subject as well?

Mr Deputy Speaker: Yes, please.

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Members Mr Dennis Tan^12,13,14 and Ms Nadia Samdin have filed PQs on the same subject set down for a later Sitting. Several Members have also filed related PQs for a later Sitting, which I will address together. Members Yip Hon Weng¹⁵ and Mr Dennis Tan on measures taken to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 at our fishery port and key food facilities. Mr Dennis Tan on assistance given to the companies and workers at JFP, Mr Darryl David¹⁶ on support given to stallholders at markets and hawker centres.

Mr Deputy Speaker, on food resilience. We have worked closely with industry partners over the years to build diversified food supply chains. This include our seafood supplies. JFP handles about 30% of our total seafood imports and is complemented by Senoko Fishery Port (SFP), which handles about 4% of seafood imports. The remaining two-thirds of our seafood imports are distributed to the industry via other routes. So, it is a very diversified distribution platform. Our seafood supply has remained stable, despite the closure of JFP and local disruptions at our markets.

Following the closure of JFP on 17 July, Singaporeans were understandably worried. Some had rushed to buy seafood over that weekend. We saw an increase in footfall at supermarkets, after the market seafood stallholders were required to get tested on 18 July. They could open their stalls only after receiving a negative PCR swab test result. All JFP workers were quarantined, thus affecting the operations of many suppliers. The Phase Two (Heightened Alert) restrictions on dining in moderated the demand.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) responded quickly to facilitate distributors and supermarkets to activate alternative arrangements. These arrangements include diverting supplies directly to the supermarkets' distribution centres and retail outlets. Supermarkets themselves increased their stock of fresh produce through their suppliers. They have been keeping their retail shelves well-stocked with a variety of seafood including the frozen seafood varieties. Meanwhile, SFP remains in operation.

As the market seafood stalls resumed operations, some switched to SFP for their supply or sourced from alternative suppliers. We have sufficient stocks of frozen seafood. I visited the Jurong Cold Store last Wednesday which stocks supplies of frozen shrimp, sea bass and grouper among others.

The cold store facility serves many wholesalers, supplying to the supermarkets and food establishments islandwide. At the same time, retail food establishments are adjusting by switching to frozen alternatives. Our local farms also produce a good variety of seafood such as sea bass, tilapia and grouper and some of them have reported many-fold increase in inquiry and orders. And they can be found online, for example, on Lazada's RedMart, FairPrice online shop and at the supermarkets as well, such as Prime and FairPrice. I encourage Singaporeans to broaden their choices of seafood and where they buy their seafood from.

We have been reviewing the longer-term plans for this sector. Since 2020, SFA has been conducting studies on the enhancement of the wholesale fresh produce sector and it is working with NEA to study the wet market sector to better meet the future demands of consumers and industry. We will factor in lessons learnt from this episode to better future-proof the sector. This episode has truly tested the resilience of our supply chains. Our overall seafood supply situation has remained stable because of our diversified supply and distribution channels.

SFA and ESG will work with industry partners to strengthen their business continuity plans. And I would also like to thank all the industry players for stepping up in this period of crisis.

Next, at JFP and key food facilities. Our fishery ports, Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre (PPWC), abattoir and slaughterhouses are key nodes in our food supply chain. SFA has begun working with the companies operating in these facilities to implement Safe Management Measures (SMMs) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objectives are to protect public health by minimising the spread of the virus and to ensure business continuity.

To minimise risk of infection from foreigners, contactless delivery for the truck drivers and boatmen was implemented. Controlled access to these facilities has been in place with only workers and registered trade visitors allowed to enter. So, public can no longer go there for a "look-see, look-see".

Workers at these facilities have been encouraged to get vaccinated quickly. To date, 76% of workers at JFP are fully vaccinated, while 86% have received at least one dose of vaccine. Unfortunately, COVID-19 managed to breakthrough these defences, with many cases detected at JFP over the past month. The cases further spread to the markets and hawker centres through the stallholders who had visited JFP. In order to break the chains of transmission, MOH made a difficult, but necessary decision to close JFP for two weeks from 17 to 31 July with all 684 workers issued Quarantine Orders.

Investigations by MOH and SFA are ongoing to determine how transmission had taken place in JFP and we have all heard from Minister for Health earlier on. We are not waiting for the investigations to complete because as Minister Ong has mentioned, it is important for us to act immediately to protect public health. So, on our own, our preliminary review has identified some areas for improvement.

First, the humid and laborious environment made it uncomfortable for workers to wear their masks for prolonged periods of time. This meant a higher propensity for workers to adjust their masks or take them off momentarily. Second, the workers could have taken off their masks while they take their breaks, smoking breaks, for example, and socialise in close proximity. Third, JFP, being a marketplace, meant that the workers and traders mix freely throughout the facility. It is just like the market that we are used to, shoppers going around, traders going around and sometimes, between stallholders they mix as well as they move stocks from one to another. Some contactless delivery measures were not strictly followed. Finally, we are investigating the possibility of fomite transmission in JFP.

We will address these areas in our SMMs, with practical solutions and enforcement before we re-open JFP. The first round of deep cleaning of JFP was done on 18 July and we will be conducting another round before it is re-opened. Common areas and crates will be regularly cleaned during its operation. SFA will work with companies to implement seven-day Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) for all workers at JFP and all workers will be encouraged to get vaccinated.

Contactless delivery protocols for truck drivers and boat men will be stepped up. Trade visitors who are not on any COVID-19 testing regimes, such as RRT will be subjected to an Antigen Rapid Test (ART) before entering. More frequent patrols will be carried out to ensure compliance with the SMMs. We are working closely with MOH and when informed of their epidemiological investigation, we will adjust these enhanced measures if necessary, to better protect both the workers and trade visitors.

SFA has audited the SMMs at SFP and PPWC. It will progressively cover all the other key food facilities. One-time PCR swab test of all workers is being carried out. We are almost at the tail end. I am very glad to report that we are not seeing big clusters in these facilities. Seven-day RRT and enhanced SMMs will be rolled out to these facilities as soon as possible.

We will monitor the operation closely and take enforcement action for any non-compliance with SMMs at these facilities. An alternative site is being made available for use in the event of another closure of the fishery ports or PPWC. The Delta variant is a formidable foe. Collective responsibility is required to keep everyone safe.

Next, on assistance extended to JFP and related businesses. The relevant agencies are working with companies to provide the necessary assistance during this difficult period. We have been facilitating companies to redirect supplies directly to the supermarkets' distribution centres and retail outlets so that they can continue operations despite the closure of JFP. We are also coordinating closely with the companies to ensure that their workers have been swabbed and are healthy before we resume operations at JFP next week. As announced by MOF last week, the Government will provide an additional four-week rental waiver for qualifying tenants on Government-owned commercial properties.

Eligible workers and self-employed persons can apply for the COVID-19 Recovery Grant-Temporary. Those under quarantine can also apply to MOH for financial assistance under the Quarantine Order Allowance Scheme.

And as to the support for stallholders in markets and hawker centres, the Government is committed to supporting our hawkers and working with them through this difficult period. A one-off cash assistance of $500 under the Market and Hawker Centre Relief Fund will be disbursed to each stallholder of cooked food and market stalls in centres managed by NEA or NEA-appointed operators in August. Stallholders need not apply for this relief. The money will be directly credited into the bank accounts of the stallholders. This is on top of a third month of rental waiver and subsidies for fees for table cleaning and dish washing services provided this year.

Those under quarantine can apply for the Quarantine Order Allowance Scheme and those eligible may apply for the COVID-19 Recovery Grant COVID-19 Recovery Grant-Temporary.

For hawkers that continue to face financial issues, they can also approach NEA, who will review their case and provide case-by-case support.

On Ms Nadia Samdin's question about measures to improve safety at our markets and hawker centres, NEA will be putting in place tightened SMMs at all markets and hawker centres to ensure that they remain clean and safe for stallholders and patrons, bearing in mind that many of our hawker centres and markets are frequented by elderly patrons. So, we are taking extra precaution to make sure that their health and safety are protected. We will carry out Rostered Routine Testing for stallholders once every 14 days. We will facilitate the testing, such as setting up more quick testing centres, as announced by MOH and explore teaching hawkers to conduct self-testing at steady state.

Mandatory SafeEntry check-in will be implemented at all markets and hawker centres managed by NEA or NEA-appointed operators to facilitate more effective contact tracing.

We had previously introduced e-payments to go cashless and will encourage hawkers and patrons to use this mode of payment to minimise contact and also possibility of fomite transmission.

About 90% of those working in markets and hawker centres – these include our stallholders, our hawkers as well as our cleaners at the centres – have received at least one dose of the vaccine. So, it is a very high vaccination rate, 90%. And we are calling up, encouraging those who have yet to do so to go for vaccination as soon as possible.

While we will continue to ensure the cleanliness of our hawker centres through regular cleaning and disinfection, I also want to remind all patrons to adhere to SMMs and to observe personal hygiene.

When dine-in resumes, patrons are reminded that they can do their part by returning their own used trays, crockery and litter to help create a cleaner dining environment.

Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong): I thank the Ministers for their Statements. By way of clarification, I would like to raise three questions. A number of Clementi residents feel very much affected by the recent outbreak. Our central market has had to close. Many worried parents, seniors, families are concerned about the way forward.

The first question is relating to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster. What measures can we take to better identify workplaces that may have a higher risk of transmission compared to elsewhere?

Three weeks ago, I filed a Parliamentary Question on detecting COVID-19 virus in the built environment. Can I ask the task force what efforts are being made to look for other areas and workplaces that could be potential hotspots but which have not yet come to surface, but which are still at higher risk?

Second question is on our schools. A number of parents in Clementi have been watching the reports of some schools having students infected, possibly by transmission at home and they want to know, given the Delta variant, what measures are being taken to maintain the safety of students, especially younger children, who are not yet able to be vaccinated? For example, how soon can we roll out breathalysers and tests, which are easy enough for a child to do it themselves?

Third question, Sir, even as we open up and transition, I ask the Ministries that we must maintain many of the capabilities built up during this pandemic and internalise the lessons learnt because we know that a worse variant of COVID-19 or even a future Disease X, a worse pandemic, is just a question of "when" rather than "if".

So, I thank the Ministers and our public servants for their efforts and I seek these questions as clarification.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Sir, on the three questions, firstly, we are constantly looking at the landscape to identify areas of risk where we might want to take greater attention. I would say there are three broad criteria.

Firstly, anything that interfaces with the outside world is at risk and, therefore, we take greater attention. That includes our airport, our seaports, the different interfaces with the external environment and, there, we want to put in greater precautions, safeguards, including regular testing, for the people who are working there.

Secondly, any domestic or local activity that has high touch interactions with many people and where people are not wearing masks or potentially are in an indoor environment and that includes dining, spas, massage establishments, beauty services and that is why we have also identified, discussed higher-risk settings and we have asked the people who are in these settings to be put on a regular testing regime, using the Antigen Rapid Test kits.

Thirdly, it is an assessment of areas where we think SMMs may not be effectively done. So, we look around and there is a qualitative assessment, our SDAs are out there, enforcement officers are out there and if we see that, potentially, in this particular industry, in this particular work site, SMMs are not followed, then that raises the alarm bells and we will want to take a closer look at that. So, this is constantly being done and we are always looking at potential areas of risk where we would want to put more attention or require more testing to be done.

On schools, that is also something we are watching carefully. I think the school protocols have, fortunately, been very tight. Up to now, in the recent outbreaks, we have not had school-based transmission. We have had students who have been infected from their home, from family members, but not yet school-based transmission. We hope that can continue and that is, in part, because our schools have been very stringent in keeping and complying with these protocols. But still, beyond just having safe management measures, we would certainly look at putting in place a testing regime, especially when there are more convenient methods of testing which can be scaled up.

Finally, we completely agree with Dr Tan Wu Meng's point that we have to continue to build up our capabilities because the battle is not over yet. New variants, future pandemics. We just have to continue this process of building better capabilities to protect ourselves.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Hazel Poa.

Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I thank the Ministers for their Statements. I am asking this question on behalf of some seniors who have conveyed to me their frustration that while they are being urged to get vaccinated, they are unable to get an appointment for a Sinovac vaccination. I think we do have a group of individuals who prefer vaccinations using the traditional approach and have reservations about newer technologies.

So, given that we are especially concerned about vaccination for our seniors, what avenues are there available for these seniors who prefer the traditional approach? Are there plans to further expand the Sinovac vaccination?

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Thank you. I think, first of all, is to try to explain to the seniors, which I have tried a lot, which is that the mRNA vaccine actually has been developed for many, many years. It is not something so novel and so new. It went through all the rigorous evaluation by different authorities and then approved and, so far, even in Singapore, a few million people have taken it, around the world even more and it is proven to be safe and effective.

Every vaccine will have side effects, including Sinovac, including mRNA. So, it is a good vaccine and, as far as possible, we want to persuade everyone, including our seniors, to take the mRNA vaccine.

But for those who are simply not comfortable or they are contra-indicated for mRNA vaccine and they want to take the Sinovac vaccine, we now have made it available under the Special Access Route. They can make an appointment. It may involve some waiting, but they will eventually get their vaccinations. I have reported just now that 72,000 people have gotten their doses. For all those who have taken the Sinovac vaccine, only 10% are Singaporean seniors above 60 years old. So, the great majority of Singaporean seniors actually still prefer the mRNA vaccine. So, make the appointment. You have got to wait a while, but you eventually will get the vaccine.

Ms Hazel Poa: Sorry, Minister, I should clarify that they actually tried to make the appointment but they are told that it is fully booked.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Oh, it should not be the case. But if you can give me the contact, we will be more than happy to help them facilitate and make an appointment. There are 20 over clinics that are doing that now.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Sir, businesses, especially the F&B sectors, are finding this series of start-stop activities really disruptive and there are growing frustrations, low morale, fatigue setting in. They asked why the F&B sector seems to be bearing the brunt of each of the heightened measures. So, can I ask the Minister why did we reverse on the 19 July decision to have fully vaccinated five-person dine-n? It appears to be a reasonable proposition where the diners among them are fully vaccinated and this is, indeed, the kind of scenario we are looking at. And with that kind of de-risking, why do we not allow that to continue? I would like to hear this from the Minister.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Thank you. I thought I spent half an hour explaining why we need to revert to Phase Two (Heightened Alert). Let me try again.

When we introduced the "two-five rule" we were prepared to go ahead with it, until we found that there was a significant number of transmissions within the community and the vaccination rate of our seniors was still relatively low. Therefore, the risk profile was significantly different from when we first started planning for the "two-five rule" framework. Therefore, we had to make a very painful decision. I must share with you that we deliberated at length on this issue. Of course, one option was to proceed with it, come hell or high water. But the risk was that you may see a significant number of seniors being infected and because they would still be unvaccinated, they would still be at risk of severe outcome and even mortality.

You may think that, well, that is okay, then just do not allow the unvaccinated to go to the restaurants. But you must also remember that those who go to the restaurants and are vaccinated may still be infected and bring the virus back home to the families where there are seniors who are unvaccinated. Therefore, it was important for us to weigh the pros and cons between proceeding with the two-five rule, or to make a painful decision to reverse the decision and give ourselves more time to allow the vaccination rate to improve, both the general vaccination rate as well as the seniors' vaccination rate.

We fully appreciate the challenges the F&B sector is facing and is still facing today until we are able to restore dining-in. We have been working with MOF to roll out support packages to help them tide over this difficult and challenging phase, and the Minister for Finance and I met them and tried to understand their concerns and to also reassure them that we are aware of their challenges and we will do what we can to help and support them.

I must also say that the reason that they usually face the brunt of our measures is because as Minister Wong pointed out earlier, they are front-facing. And there is a lot of interaction in restaurants and F&B outlets. The most critical difference is that their activities are mask-off, as customers have to remove their masks when they eat and drink. Therefore, it is one of the very high-risk settings and we have to be extra careful and exercise additional caution. Unfortunately, when we have to tighten our measures to protect the community, we will need the F&B sector to work with us.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Gerald Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, according to the MTF, the infections in the Jurong Fishery Port cluster were likely introduced via the sea from Indonesian or other fishing boats that brought fish into the port. The exact mechanism for transmission is unclear up to now.

Were these foreign fishermen required to take any COVID-19 tests or be vaccinated before entering the fishery port? If not, can this be introduced immediately to prevent further import of the virus where the countries where the pandemic is raging?

Next, regarding the Sinovac vaccine, is the relatively lower efficacy rate of the Sinovac vaccine, compared to the mRNA vaccines, the reason why those who got the Sinovac vaccine are not considered fully vaccinated in Singapore? This lower efficacy rate has been known for some time. Why did MOH not make this known clearer that they will not be giving the same recognition to the Sinovac vaccine as the mRNA vaccines yet, for the purpose of differentiated measures? Because this could have blunted the demand for the vaccine, which was mentioned earlier, and convinced more people to get the mRNA vaccines.

Third, as we reopen our borders, many more foreigners will be entering Singapore. Are there plans to require vaccinations for both short- and long-term visitors so that they do not inadvertently reduce our overall vaccination rate?

Lastly, a recent British study found that a longer period of eight weeks between vaccinations produces a higher immune response than a spacing of three weeks. In our haste to get people fully vaccinated, where we are encouraging people to book their second dose three weeks after the first dose, will we be compromising on maximising durable immunity to COVID-19 in the longer term?

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to address Mr Gerald Giam's first question on crewmen. Indeed, I think that there is a hypothesis that the cluster may have come through or punched through a fisherman on a fishery boat. That hypothesis actually has not been confirmed at this point in time, but we are not waiting for that. We are looking at how to strengthen the SMMs at the border.

We have already started contactless delivery since April. That is along with the strengthened, heightened SMMs at the PPWC. We have instituted that also for Senoko and Jurong Fishery Ports.

But with regard to the question about whether we should subject them to vaccinations or Antigen Rapid Tests (ARTs), that is something that we are considering at this point in time. Whatever we do, I think we are looking for practical solutions where we can do it without increasing the risks.

The crewmen right now, they are actually contactless, in other words, they are not allowed to land, they will stay on the vessel and they will use the vessel equipment to move their buckets of fish onto the shore and our shore workers will take over. We actually do not allow them to land on our shore.

If we subject them to frequent tests, that may be a way for them to actually be landing more frequently on our shore. So, we have to evaluate these options and look for practical and effective solutions.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: There were a couple of questions. One on the Sinovac vaccine. Actually, if one is vaccinated with Sinovac now, it does reflect in your Health Hub app and in brackets the letters "SAR". So, it is recorded that you are vaccinated. I think the question is whether it should then be conferred the concessions, should we have differentiated safe management measures?

I would say that, currently, there are different vaccines and every vaccine has a different efficacy. From a public health point of view, it would not make sense to just treat every vaccine the same.

I mentioned in my Statement just now that the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine against the Delta variant, because of the places that it has been applied and administered, that data is still being built up. At the same time, when Sinovac applied to HSA for Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR) approval earlier, the data was not yet complete.

But that data has now been submitted, early this month. So, we have a lot of data now before us. The data on efficacy against the Delta variant is building up. We have got data submitted to HSA. We will assess them robustly and if it is approved under PSAR, naturally, it will be recognised.

The third question, if I get correctly, is if we allow travel lanes to open, whether we will ensure that travellers to Singapore are also vaccinated. As explained by Minister Lawrence Wong just now, I think we have to open up travel very carefully, step by step. If not, you will inject infections into our community and make things go out of control again.

So, for example, we have unilateral opening for very safe regions. So far, it has not caused community spreading because we assessed those regions and know that they are very safe.

The next step is for those regions that have also controlled their infections and have a risk level about the same as ours – we can, for example, open up for vaccinated travellers, to and fro, without the need for Stay-Home Notices (SHNs) but require a series of tests.

I think whatever step we take, we must always make sure that it does not raise our risk level but maintain or even lower our risk level. That would be our approach.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Alex Yam.

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I welcome the MTF's focus on future differentiated treatment for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. It is perhaps one of the tools in the kit to persuade and encourage, nudge and cajole those who are still considering. However, I wish to return to a suggestion I made at the very beginning of the national vaccination programme, which is to consider making vaccinations mandatory.

A lot of effort has gone into encouraging Singaporeans to be vaccinated because it makes sense. I therefore considered it our civic duty to be vaccinated if there are no medical grounds to refuse. Ultimately, the fear is that the freedom of a minority to choose not to be vaccinated will affect the freedom of the majority who have chosen to be vaccinated for the sake of themselves, their families and the community.

The second clarification I seek is with regard to the effectiveness of TraceTogether and SafeEntry for contact tracing. Over the last few days, with regards to the KTV cluster and also partially to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster, we heard some limitations vis-à-vis contact tracing because people who do not bring their phones with them or their dongles with them because of fear of being detected in certain places. So, whether or not the MTF can comment on whether contact tracing has been made more difficult recently.

Lastly, on differentiated treatment, I quote a comment that was made by fellow Member Nadia Samdin on differentiated treatment. While I welcome it, how will we eventually distinguish between those who knowingly avoid vaccination and those who do not have a choice, for example, the young and the medically excused? This is, of course, if we do not introduce mandatory vaccination.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: I did not quite get the second question so maybe Minister Lawrence Wong can help answer that later.

Whether we can make vaccination compulsory like we did for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and others, it is not time yet to think about that proposition. Because as of now, the use of the vaccine is under PSAR, the Pandemic Special Access Route. So, it is under emergency use, in a pandemic situation. To make it mandatory, I think is not quite consistent. In time to come, when COVID-19 is really endemic, maybe it is a policy that governments around the world will have to consider.

On the third question, which is related to Ms Nadia Samdin's question, how do we distinguish between those who knowingly choose not to vaccinate versus those who cannot get vaccinated? From a public health point of view, they are actually the same. They are equally vulnerable and we ought to treat them the same. If you are not vaccinated, to protect you, best not to join the big events. It cannot be that because your intention is different, we let you join. That would not make sense from a public health point of view.

Having said that, as I mentioned earlier, we will think of measures, such as you get yourself tested and you can join or, in time to come, when our vaccination rate is very high and our collective resilience is so strong, we actually do not need much of that differentiation.

Mr Lawrence Wong: The second question is on contact tracing, the effectiveness of TraceTogether and SafeEntry. I would say generally, even in the recent episode, we have seen that the systems are in place. Most people, the vast majority, are using the TraceTogether tokens or the app properly; establishments are having proper gating and check-ins using SafeEntry. And so overall, we still find this to be very effective in doing timely contact tracing and ringfencing.

Are there people who abuse this, who do not use the TraceTogether app? Yes, obviously, there are. But by and large, it has still been very effective and we want to make it even more effective, which is why for markets and hawker centres, previously, we had not put SafeEntry check-in requirements for all markets and hawker centres; because we all know it is very difficult. It is open. It is porous. People come in from all the different places. So, we only did it for the very popular markets.

But now, we are planning, based on the lessons we have learned and realising how effective it is, we are planning to put in SafeEntry check-in requirements across all markets and hawker centres. It will lead to some inconveniences on the ground with many of your residents. So, I seek Members' understanding to explain to your residents why this is necessary in order for us to have effective contact tracing during this pandemic.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker, I missed out one question by Mr Gerald Giam just now. He mentioned whether we are rushing dose one and dose two by keeping only a three-week duration and whether a longer duration will make the vaccine more effective.

That is the hypothesis of one study and it is not conclusive. There are many other studies that show that three weeks for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and four weeks for the Moderna vaccine is an appropriate duration and delivered good efficacy. So, I think the conclusion is not definite.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Joan Pereira.

Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have a supplementary question on the Quick Test Centres. May I check if the quick test centres for the fast and easy testing can be opened for extended hours to cater to one-man operations and other businesses who may have to go for their mandatory swab test every 14 days outside of their operating hours?

Mr Ong Ye Kung: The answer is yes. I think the quick test centres, in time to come, are likely to be almost a national infrastructure for living with endemic COVID-19. I can imagine buildings and employers requiring that their employees should be tested once every 14 days or seven days before coming to work as a precaution, as part of living with COVID-19. And the easy way to do it, either you buy a self-test kit from the pharmacy or you walk into one of these quick test centres, do a self-swab or do a breathalyser test.

And, under those circumstance, I think we need to study the demand pattern and, if need be, we will need to operate on more days of the week or for longer hours. Right now, it is five days, 10.00 am to 5.00 pm, I think, because many of the F&B outlets find that weekends are not suitable for them. But as we move into the next phase and, judging by the demand, we will have to adjust the timing.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Earlier on, Minister Ong Ye Kung had noted that the vaccination rate was progressing at an impressive 1% per day and that we could expect a 70% coverage by around mid-August and, possibly, 80% by September.

I am wondering what the basis for such an optimistic projection is, in part because once we factor in the under-12 in the population, for instance, that would not qualify for vaccination, you get something in the order of 10%-12%. So, it only assumes an 8%-9% vaccine hesitancy share of the population. Elsewhere, it has been demonstrated that at far lower coverage rates, populations have seen a point of inflection where there is resistance. I guess the question is: how would we get this coverage to this 80% that, I agree, would certainly be welcomed?

Mr Ong Ye Kung: The basis of projection is because we watch the number every day. I do. Right now, those who have taken the first jab, it is already 76% and that is over the whole population, including those under 12. And if you break it down by age bands, it is well over 80% – 85% to 88% – except for the most senior group, age above 70, which is at 76%.

So, just based on who has taken the first dose and so long as they turn up for second doses which they tend to, by the time we reach National Day, we should be close to 70% receiving two doses. And we believe that if that momentum continues, by September, I think there is a very good possibility that we will reach 80%.

Assoc Prof Jamus Lim is right that, if that comes about, that means vaccine hesitancy in Singapore is actually much lower, compared to other countries. And I think this is a function of us working together as a united people, trusting each other, with trust between Government and people. And that is what helped us overcome vaccine hesitancy. We still have a lot of work to do for those who are older, but let us continue this work.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Dr Lim Wee Kiak.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang): Thank you, Sir. I have two clarifications. One is on Sinovac. I think when the task force announced that we are going to release the Sinovac vaccine to the people, many rejoiced, they were very happy about it. But this rejoicing was short-lived after it was announced that the Sinovac vaccine – once you are vaccinated – is not considered as part of the national vaccination programme. I also understand that there are overseas Singaporeans who are vaccinated with AstraZeneca or other vaccines and I think MOH is prepared to accept them if they do a serology test. And if the serology test shows that they have immunity, they can be included in the national registry.

My question is: for Singaporeans who have received the Sinovac vaccine, if they are willing to go through a serology test and the serology test shows that their immunity is there, can you register them in the national registry? So, when next month or the month after next, when the restrictions are lifted for the vaccinated, can they be considered as part of the vaccinated instead? That is the first clarification.

Second clarification is on the supply of vaccines. I am very happy to hear that there is enough vaccine for all of us and, by September, we probably will hit about 80%. I read in the papers, our neighbour, Johor Bahru, has about 15% vaccination as of last month and I think Batam's was 23%. My question is: can Singapore help our immediate neighbours with their vaccination once we have hit our 80% because, if our neighbours are not safe, we are not safe as well.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Thank you. On the issue of the Sinovac vaccine, I have explained earlier. Rather than doing serology tests – and amongst our experts, there are also different interpretations of serology tests – I think the easiest thing is to go back to what I have said just now. As of 5 July, Sinovac has submitted all the required data for us to do a proper evaluation under our PSAR framework. So, let HSA do its work. It is trying to do it as fast as it can. And if the Sinovac vaccine or other vaccines in time get approved under PSAR, naturally, we will want to take a more inclusive approach in recognising them.

As for helping our immediate neighbours, all these purchase agreements have quite strict contractual requirements. So, we cannot take delivery and then donate to another country or region. Our contracts require us to discuss with the suppliers. But, certainly, where we can help, we will want to help our immediate region because it is only when every country around the world and in the region recovers from COVID-19 that we will really be able to live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Xie Yao Quan.

Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong): I thank the Ministers for their Statements and I am particularly heartened to hear the concrete roadmap that Minister Lawrence Wong has provided as to how we will ease ourselves out of Phase Two (Heightened Alert) and the differentiation for vaccinated versus unvaccinated persons in this particular roadmap.

The clarification I would like to seek pertains to the longer term. So, beyond immediate easing and reopening, when we are well and truly into a new normal of endemic COVID-19; in this new normal, as Minister Ong Ye Kung has noted, we will have reached a high level of vaccination and, therefore, COVID-19 resilience in the population and the need for differentiation between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons would be less. But Minister Lawrence Wong has also said that, as we reopen, we must expect the case numbers to rise.

So, to take this a little bit further, in the new normal, there is still a possibility that we get a major flare-up in infections from time to time. And in such a scenario, the few hundreds of thousands or half a million persons or so who remain unvaccinated will be the ones at greatest risk of severe illness and therefore, at greatest risk of loading our healthcare system.

And so, in such a scenario, I would like to ask the MTF how might we tame the flare-up and would the MTF then consider in such a scenario a sharper differentiation, albeit a transient or interim one in SMMs between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons so that we can protect the unvaccinated but yet not cause a major disruption to normal life for the vast majority like we now have in Phase Two (Heightened Alert)?

And more to the point, do we think we still need to pull back – to use Minister Lawrence Wong's words – pull back sharply as a population from time to time in the new normal or can we finally expect to see the last of Phase Two (Heightened Alert)?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have tried to give some clarity on what we can expect in the weeks ahead. Mr Xie would like clarity in the months forward. Unfortunately, with the current situation being so fluid and uncertain, it is very hard. We do not have a crystal ball. That is why, beyond, I said early August, mid-term of the Phase Two (Heightened Alert), we have one move. When we get to about 80% coverage, we make another move. Maybe in September and beyond that, we will consider sequential moves.

But each time we do so, we do it step-by-step and we do it in a controlled manner, not a big bang. And whenever we make one move to ease, we monitor health outcomes very closely, precisely for the concerns that Mr Xie has highlighted, that there will still be unvaccinated persons and we are concerned that when we make one step to open, cases go up. We have to watch the health outcomes and the hospitalisation and ICU cases.

If these were to spike, then as I have said, we might either have to slow down on the next step of reopening or, in the very worst case, if indeed, a lot of unvaccinated persons and a lot of elderly turn up sick in the hospitals, then we may really have to pull back, as I have mentioned. The worst case in my mind would be when a new variant strikes. No one knows exactly when this will happen and what what sort of new variants we will see. But the risk is not trivial. And if a new variant emerges down the road that is much more transmissible or worse, lethal and more resistant to the current batch of vaccines, then it is almost like you are dealing with a new virus frankly. Therefore, the defences have all got to go up again.

So, while we are embarking on this journey of reopening, let us understand that there are still risks, there are still uncertainties ahead and, therefore, we are taking this controlled step forward, remain alert, remain vigilant and continue to be flexible and adaptable in adjusting our posture, based on the latest assessment of risks and the external environment and how the pandemic proceeds.

Mr Deputy Speaker: I will take two more clarifications before closing the debate. Mr Leon Perera.

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Just one clarification for the Minister for Health. There will be some individuals who have both doses and who still have very low resistance to the virus due to them being immuno-compromised for genetic reasons or to reasons due to having certain risk factors.

Is the Government actively looking at – and this can relate to the Parliamentary Question that I have filed – is the Government actively looking at giving a third jab to such individuals if the science actually supports that that will help them to raise their resistance to the vaccine? And I understand that the US Centres for Disease Control is actively looking at this question right now.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: If I am not wrong, the US has not come to a conclusion and neither have we. We are studying this actively whether we need a third dose as a booster, when and what kind of strategy – whether you use back mRNA or use a heterologous strategy. So, these are all being studied. And when the Expert Committee has made a decision, we will make the information public.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Tin Pei Ling.

Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Just a change to direct my question to Minister Shanmugam. I had earlier filed a Parliamentary Question for a later Sitting but I thank the Minister for answering it earlier.

I just have a follow-up question which is: given that there were rules to disallow hostessing and yet there was blatant disregard for the rules and now, with the spotlight on these KTVs or pivoted outlets, I am just wondering whether there is a risk that more of these vice activities may then be driven underground to other settings.

Therefore, how will the surveillance and enforcement be stepped up to control this? I know the Minister had addressed this in quite some detail but I am just wondering how will the surveillance and enforcement be stepped up further, given the current possibility and especially in areas, such as industrial spaces, where perhaps office or factory spaces could be used for parties at night, based on some anecdotal feedback that we have heard?

Mr K Shanmugam: I thank Ms Tin for that question.

I think we have to rightly focus on the people who are the cause of the spread, people who operate illegally and the people who patronise. But, before the pandemic, what was our framework? Singapore never made prostitution illegal because we knew that countries which had tried and for thousands of years people have tried, it is not going to work. So, you need to be realistic about what is doable and what is not doable. Pimping is illegal. Prostitution was neither illegal then nor is it now, except, I suppose, when there are safe distancing measures.

When we allowed the nightlife outlets, pubs, bars, KTVs, those who wanted to pivot, what was our understanding of the situation? Supposing we had said no to all of them, there would have been a great deal of loss of jobs. But does that mean that, immediately, all dodgy activities would have stopped? Ms Tin is right. Precisely, this issue, it would have gone underground much more and it would have been very difficult to trace.

So, pivoting is not the issue. The issue is that there is money to be made in making available the services and there will always be people, because there is a huge demand, regardless of the rules and there is – I would not say unlimited supply but there is some supply. There will always be arbitraging opportunities to make money. That is why flats, industrial spaces, warehouses – you would have seen it in the newspapers – they even organised illegal KTV operations.

So, if we remove the two issues, it is not that one is not connected to the other. The pivoting of some operators is not connected to illegal activities. They go on and, by definition because of our rules, if all these activities are "underground", in the sense that they are not in the open, then we have to go and use our intelligence to find and deal with them. Some are in these outlets; some are in outlets that are not obvious. We have to keep continuing at it and whatever rules we come up with, this is not going to stop. It is just a question of whether it is more or less of the activities.

It puts a heavy onus on the regulatory authorities. We can urge everyone to be responsible. But as you saw from the example I gave, immediately after the unilateral opening was closed, there were many girlfriends standing up with Singapore sponsors with a variety of reasons and this will go on. We just have to try and deal with them.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. We have completed our proceedings on the Ministerial Statements on the Fifth Update on whole-of-Government Responses to COVID-19. Next is the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Finance on Support Measures for Phase Two (Heightened Alert).

Before we take the much anticipated tea break, allow me to say that the debate so far shows how we are all trying to fly our Singapore flag high throughout this pandemic. But I thought it would be good to invite this House to show its strong support for our Team Singapore in Tokyo who are doing their best and their finest to fly our Singapore flag high at the Olympics. [Applause.]

Thank you. And with that, I propose to take a break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 6.20 pm.

Sitting accordingly suspended

at 6.05 pm until 6.20 pm.

Sitting resumed at 6.20 pm.

[Deputy Speaker (Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo) in the Chair]