Additional Precautions for Preschools, Childcare Centres and Kindergartens to Prevent COVID-19 Clusters

122 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in view of the recent COVID-19 clusters involving preschools and updated measures to Phase Two (Heightened Alert), whether additional precautions will be taken at childcare centres and kindergartens to ensure greater safety for the staff and our children enrolled in preschools.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: The safety and well-being of children and staff in preschools is of utmost importance. To ensure this, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has been evolving our measures to keep our preschool community safe since the start of the pandemic, in consultation with MOH.

ECDA requires all preschools to observe strict safe management measures (SMM) along three strategies:

(a) Restricting access. We do not allow higher-risk individuals (such as persons who are unwell) to enter preschools. We restrict visitors to only those who need to perform necessary functions. As an added precaution, ECDA tightened Leave of Absence (LOA) requirements from 8 June 2021 for children or staff undergoing mandatory testing, issued with Health Risk Warning, or are staying with household members who are on Home Quarantine Order (HQO) or Stay-Home Notice (SHN)¹.

(b) Emphasis on personal and environmental hygiene. Practices such as frequent handwashing, cleaning of high-touch points and ensuring good ventilation are adopted.

(c) Restricting movement across groups in the preschool. Children and staff in preschools are cohorted by class and staff cannot be deployed across preschools.

To complement the three SMM strategies in preschools, vaccination and testing are two key enablers for the safe resumption of activities.

Vaccination is a key part of Singapore’s efforts in moving toward a COVID-19-resilient nation. As at end August 2021, about 95% of preschool staff are already vaccinated or have received their first dose. We will continue to encourage those who are medically eligible but have yet to get themselves vaccinated, to do so early so that they can better protect themselves, their families, and the children under their care.

Beyond vaccination, regular testing using Antigen Rapid Test (ART) serves as a useful form of surveillance so that COVID-19 infections can be detected earlier, which will in turn enable preschools to ring-fence and act earlier to reduce the risk of transmissions. To enable this, we will:

(a) implement the "Vaccinate or Regular Test" regime in preschools. From 1 October 2021, the "Vaccinate or Regular Test" regime announced by the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) will apply to all programme and non-programme staff working in preschools, including interns and HQ personnel. Any unvaccinated staff, including those who are medically ineligible, will have to be tested with an ART twice a week.

(b) introduce surveillance testing at preschools. From 1 October 2021, preschools will also introduce regular ART testing of staff, regardless of their vaccination status. Surveillance testing is important, given that preschool children cannot be vaccinated at this point.

(c) facilitate regular testing and close self-monitoring of preschool staff and children’s health. We will do so by distributing three ART kits to each preschool staff and child from mid-September. The ART kits distributed by ECDA, together with the six ART self-test kits that each household will receive as part of MOH’s nationwide distribution exercise, will enable preschool staff and children to do a quick test whenever there is possible exposure or suspicion of possible infection. This includes staff and children who:

(i) are identified by their preschool as possible contacts of a confirmed COVID-19 case and placed on LOA;

(ii) are feeling unwell with flu-like symptoms, but were not swabbed when visiting the doctor; or

(iii) have unwell household members with flu-like symptoms.

More fundamentally, we hope that the distribution of ART kits will help to kickstart the habit of regular self-testing by everyone. To keep our community safe, all of us have to exercise personal responsibility and monitor our health, our family members’ and our children’s health closely and self-test regularly.

The COVID-19 situation remains dynamic. As we transit towards living with COVID-19 as an endemic situation, we will continue to review and refine our testing regime and safe management measures, in line with the national posture and in consultation with MOH, to safeguard the health and well-being of the children and staff in our preschools.

Keeping our preschools safe and healthy is a collective effort. Hence, we urge the preschool community to continue to be vigilant and take all necessary precautions against the spread of COVID-19. We also urge parents to monitor their children’s health closely and seek immediate medical advice, if their child is unwell. Children who are unwell should stay at home to rest and return to preschool only when they have fully recovered.