From 1 Jan 2022, Unvaccinated People by Choice Cannot Enter Malls Even If They’ve Done Pre-Event Tests

In Austria, COVID-19 vaccines will become compulsory and because of that, some of their citizens are calling Austria a dictatorship. Here in Singapore, we have not resulted in such drastic measures but that doesn’t mean we let our unvaccinated individuals roam free.

Here are more rules for those who are  unvaccinated by choice.

From 1 Jan 2022, Unvaccinated People by Choice Cannot Enter Malls Even If They’ve Done Pre-Event Tests

From 1 Jan 2022, individuals who are voluntarily unvaccinated would not be able to enter vaccination-controlled premises such as shopping malls even if they have a negative pre-event test result in the last 24 hours.

This rule is not to discriminate the unvaccinated individuals but in fact to protect them, for they are subject to greater risks of severe illness.

This regulation is set to roll out next year so that the unvaccinated individuals have enough time to complete their vaccination regime.

Regulations from 1 Dec

The unvaccinated individuals can already feel the heat this coming Dec as they will not be able to visit the public libraries from 1 Dec. They will also not be able to join some activities in the community clubs/centres under the People’s Association (PA) as well.

This is to ensure that senior-centric activities can be resumed in a safe manner.

In the next few weeks, seniors can finally stop staring at the four walls of their houses as there will be more active ageing programmes offered by the Health Promotion Board. They will be able to participate in other forms of learning under the National Silver Academy as well.

Hospitals & Residential Care Homes

From tomorrow (22 Nov) onwards, the resumption of in-person visits to hospitals and residential care homes will be launched. Of course, there are rules to these visits:

  • In-person visit only allowed when both the patient/resident are fully vaccinated
  • Visits for medically ineligible patients/residents will be allowed
  • In-person visits for those who are not fully vaccinated will only be allowed on a case-by-case basis, as advised by the hospitals and residential care homes

Some of these exceptional circumstances include patients who are in critical condition, paediatric patients, birthing and post-patrum mothers and patients who need extra care from caregivers like those with mental incapacities.

Before visiting the hospitals and residential homes, all visitors must show a valid negative antigen rapid test obtained within the last day (24 hours) of each visit. These tests will not be sponsored.

Fully vaccinated or medically ineligible visitors have two choices when it comes to obtaining the negative antigen rapid test result:

  • get tested under the supervision of a MOH-approved COVID-19 test provider (includes test performed at Quick Test Centres)
  • unsupervised self-administered rapid test

Those who prefer to test in their own homes will be required to collect evidence of when they got tested and photo identification for verification before entry to the hospital wards or residential care homes.

If you have a special reason why you are not fully vaccinated, you have to get tested under the supervision of a MOH-approved COVID-19 test provider. An unsupervised self-administered rapid test is not allowed.

However, do note that visits will be suspended if the home is managing an active COVID-19 cluster.

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Featured Image: Chatchawat Prasertsom / shutterstock.com