Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says health workers and frontliners have done their best for two years to protect as many of us as possible and we must now do our part to protect them, by getting vaccinated, and by taking precautions to prevent becoming infected, or infecting someone else.
Dr Fong says as we have seen all over the world, even if Omicron is less likely to cause severe disease or deaths compared to previous variants, higher levels of transmission mean more people getting infected in a shorter time period, which may still lead to a high number of hospitalizations and deaths.
He further says and when people are admitted with COVID, rather than for COVID, medical staff are still required to organize themselves to provide care for COVID and non-COVID patients.
Dr Fong adds this means more hospital resources are needed and more staff are required to work, which puts further strain on an already stressed health system.
He also says COVID-19 is also not the only health challenge that health workers face every day adding that taking the pressure off health systems will enable them to deal with the many other health challenges that our people face.
Dr Fong says, therefore, the COVID 19 response should now be a community-wide, whole-of-society program, where everyone plays their role.
He also highlighted that as such while vaccination deployment will continue, their current efforts will be to support other Ministries and business entities to develop COVID safe protocols and to provide the appropriate oversight processes that ensure we all function in a COVID safe manner.
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