Changi General Hospital visiting rules same for most patients after some staff detected with Covid-19

Changi General Hospital said only the patients who are close contacts of those who tested positive have been placed in isolation. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

SINGAPORE - Guidelines for visits to Changi General Hospital (CGH) remain unchanged for most patients after some hospital staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Patients in general wards are still able to receive one visitor at a time, with a cap of one visit per person a day.

Only the patients who are close contacts of those who tested positive have been placed in isolation, said CGH in an update on Facebook on Sunday (June 27).

CGH posted the update after an article on Mothership.sg incorrectly said the visiting guidelines had changed after the positive tests.

"CGH is aware of a post by Mothership.sg stating that no visitors are allowed into our inpatient wards after Covid-19 cases among staff," it said in the Facebook post.

"This is not accurate."

CGH also said outpatient appointments are continuing.

The article by Mothership.sg, dated June 27, 11.08am, now carries an editor's note which says: "A previous version of this article's headline said that visitors would not be allowed into CGH's inpatient wards.

"We have since corrected the headline to reflect that only visitors of patients who are isolated after being identified as contacts of Covid-19 cases will not be allowed. We have also updated the article with further clarification on CGH's visitation guideline," it said.

This comes after three more hospital workers at CGH were reported to have tested positive for the Covid-19 virus by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday.

They are a 21-year-old nurse and two porters.

The nurse's infection has been classified as an unlinked case, while the porters, aged 48 and 66, have had their infections linked to the cluster at the hospital. There are now five cases in the cluster.

SPH Brightcove Video
"Business as usual". That was how patients and visitors to Changi General Hospital described the situation on the ground following news that CGH cluster had grown to 10 people on June 27th

The other cases in the cluster are also hospital porters, with the first patient, a 35-year-old man, having tested positive on June 22.

In a separate post on Facebook on Saturday night, CGH said its infection control protocols have been activated since the positive tests.

"Contact tracing and ongoing surveillance swab tests are in progress, and focused enhanced surveillance swabs have been conducted for relevant staff in CGH," it said.

"Staff who have been in close contact have been placed on quarantine orders or on leave of absence pending further investigations."

CGH also said it was conducting more swab tests for patients in the hospital and was stepping up its monitoring of patients who develop fevers or symptoms of respiratory infection.

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