Health Ministry to test all individuals above age 45 with acute respiratory infection for Covid-19 as they are more at risk.

THE city state’s health ministry (MOH) said that it will extend testing to all individuals aged 45 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) from later next week, as the risks of severe Covid-19 infection increase with age.

The ministry said in a statement that this test regime came about as more individuals were returning to workplaces and testing would progressively be extended to more groups subsequently.

It said that Singapore aims to test all individuals who are diagnosed with ARI at first presentation to a doctor, and it had since the start of June done this for selected individuals – including seniors 65 years old and above, healthcare workers, and staff and older students at the educational institutions.

This is one of the ways for the city-state to expand its Covid-19 testing strategy and increase testing capacity to 40,000 tests per day.

Other ways include stepping up the testing of close contacts, and doing more active surveillance testing in the community.

“Our current testing strategy is focused on active case finding among the community and active surveillance testing amongst targeted groups who are more vulnerable or have a higher risk of exposure to Covid-19,” the ministry said.

The MOH said Singapore would need to continue to step up its precautionary measures to enable safe resumption of activities, as the city state was to start phase two of reopening after 11.59pm on June 18, when most activities, apart from a small list of exceptions, would be resumed.

The use of technology to facilitate efficient contact tracing was also a part of these efforts and key enablers to support a safe reopening of Singapore’s economy and society, the ministry added.