Vaccination offers strong protection against COVID for the individual, especially against severe or critical illness. A high vaccination coverage also slows down the transmission in a population. This is because if infected, vaccinated people are likely to recover faster and have shorter windows when they are infectious, compared to unvaccinated people.
With the emergence of the highly infectious COVID variants, we do not expect herd immunity with the current generation of vaccines.
It will also take several years to achieve high levels of vaccination globally, even if more sterilising vaccines come along. Vaccinated individuals could still be infected, albeit mostly with mild or even without symptoms. Likewise, some unvaccinated individuals who are infected may be highly infectious even when they have little or no symptoms. Together, such silent carriers may go on to infect others, especially those who may not yet have been vaccinated, or those who are vaccinated but have lower protection for various medical or health reasons.
Every Singapore resident plays an important role to minimise new outbreaks and prevent hidden clusters from forming in the community, in a new normal of endemic COVID In addition to good personal hygiene, safe distancing and self-monitoring, mask-wearing has been effective at reducing the spread of airborne respiratory droplets.
Temasek Foundation thanks its partners for supporting the mask distribution. They can also stay masked similarly when visiting someone in a hospital or nursing home, to protect the vulnerable and elderly. Since early last year, Temasek Foundation has been working with multiple partners to provide support in and outside Singapore in response to the COVID pandemic. The use of reusable masks helps to lower infection spread, and reduce plastic waste from disposable masks.
These can be used as an added layer of protection on top of reusable masks or used alone. These high quality masks help suppress infection rates by reducing the level of viral loads being emitted or breathed in. More recently, Temasek Foundation has distributed free oximeters to every household in Singapore to empower residents to monitor their blood oxygen levels regularly.
Temasek Foundation is also planning to distribute povidone-iodine mouth gargle in the coming months. More details on this will be shared later. Temasek Foundation has also facilitated over , swab tests plus care packs for priority groups such as migrant workers, essential and frontline staff, stallholders, retail assistants and town council staff in our residential precincts to our community stay prepared and keep safe.
More recently, we launched Youth Action for Pandemics , an initiative for people under 40 years old with innovative ideas to help address COVID and prepare for the next pandemic. Besides taking care of our local community, Temasek Foundation recognises the need to ensure that communities beyond Singapore are well-equipped against this pandemic.
Initiatives include the donation of Personal Protection Equipment such as masks, gowns, and gloves; oxygen-related support equipment, from oxygen concentrators and ventilators, to ICU ventilators and ECMO lung machines; and diagnostics such as test kits to healthcare partners in some 40 countries beyond Singapore. Together with the World Food Programme and Singapore Airlines, we are supporting efforts to transport essential medical supplies and other health and humanitarian items to points of need across Asia and the Pacific.
Singapore Airlines and Temasek Foundation co-sponsored the cost of flights to transport the life-saving supplies to different countries. The partnership has so far completed more than 40 flights, carrying over 5, cubic metres of COVID-related products such as oxygen equipment, face shields, goggles, gowns, and respirator masks. For more information about other Stay Prepared initiatives, visit stayprepared.
About Us Leadership Named Endowments. Media Releases Annual Reports. Back to Media Releases. Residents can also check the queue length at each collection point before heading down. This helps to reduce crowding at the collection points. Medical Grade Surgical Masks and N95 Respirator Masks The surgical masks are high performance medical grade quality, and used in hospitals. Medical grade surgical masks come in 2 boxes of 25 pieces or 1 box of 50 pieces. N95 masks come in 1 box of 25 pieces.
Who May Collect the Free Masks? Residents can get a queue number online via getq. In a statement last week, Temasek Foundation said medical-grade masks can be used alone or as an added layer of protection on top of reusable masks.
It added: "These high quality masks help suppress infection rates by reducing the level of viral loads being emitted or breathed in. For instance, it is recommended that those with flu-like symptoms wear a surgical mask to visit the doctor. Both surgical and N95 masks have 95 per cent particle filtration efficiency or better, which means they can filter out at least 95 per cent of particles between 0. The Covid virus is about 0.
Residents are reminded to have their physical or electronic SP Group residential utility bill or their account numbers ready when they visit the collection points. They can help their friends and neighbours collect the masks, as long as they have their SP residential bills or their account numbers. However, those who deprive others of collecting their masks by fraudulently obtaining and misusing their personal information will be dealt with by the law, said the foundation.
It also gave the assurance that each collection point has a steady supply of masks and is restocked when needed. Join ST's Telegram channel here and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
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