Anyone who is sick with COVID-19 like symptoms should not be attending work or school – Dr Fong

Anyone who is sick with COVID-19 like symptoms should not be attending work or school according to the Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong.

Doctor Fong also says if you have symptoms, you must get tested for COVID-19.

If you test positive, isolation is mandatory for 7 days.

He says we continue to see an increasing trend but recent severe disease and death have been seen only in those with severe comorbidities (underlying illnesses).

Severe disease and death is also seen if the people are either unvaccinated or have not received the booster dose.

Doctor Fong also says private laboratories, GPs and pharmacies that are part of the Ministry’s testing network (through application to the COVID Risk Mitigation Taskforce) are authorized to conduct COVID-19 testing and as such must comply with the established system of reporting positive and negative results to the Ministry of Health.

Positive cases reported by private facilities to the Ministry are reported in the regular public updates.

The Permanent Secretary also says vaccines have provided a level of protection from severe disease and death, and the increasing trends in cases remain less of a concern.

However, the Ministry has maintained a number of public health mandates and measures that relate to vaccination and incoming travel.

The Ministry of Health envisions that the more the booster dose the better the level of protection, and the safer it will be to further remove the remaining public health measures.

The Ministry is currently looking at 80 percent booster coverage for those over 18 years of age.