COVID: 50% of work-from-home personnel can return to office from 1 January

[The_King]

SINGAPORE — Singapore will ease its default work-from-home (WFH) rules on 1 January, and allow 50 per cent of those who have been working from home to return to office.

This comes with the implementation of workforce vaccination measures which will start from the same day, such as allowing only employees who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 within the past 270 days to return to the workplace. 

Unvaccinated employees will not be allowed to return to the workplace unless they have tested negative for COVID-19. Employees who are medically ineligible for all the vaccines under the National Vaccination Programme are exempted from the workforce vaccination measures if they need to work on-site. 

The Ministry of Health said in a media release on Tuesday (14 December) that it is planning to raise the cap on the number of participants in work-related events, which is currently capped at 50 persons. 

The cap will be raised only for events where all participants remain masked and seated, and at a safe distance from one another. All participants must also meet the requirements of vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS). 

Social gatherings at the workplace will continue to be disallowed.

At a virtual press briefing by the multi-ministry task force on COVID-19 (MTF) on Tuesday (14 December), MTF co-chair and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong noted, "When it comes to work, we do at some point have to allow people to return to the offices. It's not sustainable to continue with this present arrangement, nor is it sustainable to keep our borders closed throughout."

He added, "So for these important measures, we have to learn to move forward and in a way adapt to this reality that the virus will be with us for the long term." 

[XianGe]

Looks like let it go mode

[aaur4man]