The list of awardees was published in the Government Gazette on the Prime Minister’s Office website on May 31 last year.
As overcoming the pandemic was a concerted national effort, Mr Ong said the government’s approach in conferring the medal was to be inclusive with no set quotas.
Individuals were nominated by their employers based on the eligibility criteria, which dictate that the recipient must have made substantial contributions on a sustained basis during the pandemic in these aspects:
- Managing the public health crisis at the frontlines
- Supporting frontline operations, such as vaccination, testing, managing dorms or recovery facilities
- Managing the consequences of COVID-19 on Singapore’s economy, supply chains or social cohesion
“As the (COVID-19 resilience medal) is a national-level award, individuals with criminal records and public service officers with disciplinary records and within the debarment periods are also disqualified,” he noted.
Mr Ong also said that outsourced workers, such as cleaners, porters and patient care assistants, were included in the nomination process.
About 2,000 of them were given the medal.
Last December, an anonymous group of healthcare workers penned an open letter to MOH and Mr Ong, questioning why many frontliners in Singapore’s fight against the crisis were excluded from the award.
A second letter was also published, urging the ministry to set up a channel to let “all forgotten (healthcare workers)” come forward to be “rightfully recognised”.
This article was originally published in TODAY.
