As winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Ong, people should be on the lookout for a potential new variant of concern.
He also addressed the Covid-19 situation in China.
"When China opens up more, they appear to be shifting their policies. If they do so, there will inevitably be an increase in illnesses. We can observe that more and more individuals get infected in China, and when that occurs, [given] the country's population density and size, new variations of concern are inevitable," added Ong.
Ong stated that Singapore's orientation has been "quite obvious" for the past year. He said that whenever it is feasible for Singapore to open up further, the government will do so.
"We are left with relatively few regulations, and life has mostly returned to normal." But where possible, we should advance further."
Ong stated in parliament last week that Singapore's death rate from Covid-19 reinfection is lower than that of first infections.
He noted that the fatality rate for reinfection cases in Singapore from September to November was four per 100,000 cases, which was lower than the rate for first infection cases, which was 35 per 100,000 instances.
Last month, he also stated that hospitals will no longer reserve whole wards for Covid-19 patients.
Ong emphasized that given high vaccination rates and high levels of protection to severe sickness in the public, patients should be managed based on clinical severity and treatment priority, and not by a distinct norm for Covid-19 patients.
In the previous month, Singapore has recorded 44,571 new cases of Covid-19 infection. 99.7 percent of patients had no or minor symptoms, 0.3% required oxygen supplementation, and 0.4% were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
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