Singapore eases isolation and testing as Omicron becomes dominant

A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on January 4, 2022. - AFP

SINGAPORE, Jan 21 (Bloomberg): Singapore, anticipating a surge of the now-prevalent omicron variant in the country, is taking steps to minimize disruption by lowering isolation periods and testing requirements for vaccinated travelers.

Officials in the city-state asked businesses to prepare continuity plans and encourage regular testing as it warned of potential mass absences caused by workers getting infected by the highly-transmissible omicron variant. "As the number of infections could potentially be very large, absenteeism rate can go up very sharply,” the health ministry said in a statement Friday.