Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that medical expenses for people with Covid-19 who refused to be vaccinated will no longer be covered by the government.
The measure, announced on the folder’s website, has been in effect since yesterday. The only exceptions are for those who were unable to go through the immunization process due to medical restrictions or age.
“Currently, unvaccinated people represent a large proportion of those who require intensive care and contribute disproportionately to the pressure on our resources”, indicated a note issued by the Ministry of Health.
Over the past three weeks, the number of Covid-19 cases per day has stabilized at around 3,000 in the City-State, with 99% considered mild or asymptomatic, according to local authorities.
Despite the vaccination rate of 85% of the population, the fear in Singapore is that the increase in contagion will also represent a rise in the ICUs of the country’s hospitals, which already have an occupancy rate of 70%.
To increase vaccine coverage, authorities are evaluating the application of doses of the immunizing agent developed by the companies Pfizer and BioNTech in children from 5 to 11 years old.
In October, the local government had already determined that workers who were not vaccinated, or who have not recently recovered from the infection, must submit an antigen test with a negative result to carry out their activities from January onwards.
Although most restrictions have been lifted in Singapore, there are still limitations on the number of people allowed in restaurants and public events.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 221,000 cases of infection by the new coronavirus and 511 deaths by Covid-19 have been registered in the City-State, the majority in August of this year.
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