a) COVID-19 has always been category 1 notifiable medical condition. In the latest Notifiable Medical Condition list published in February 2023, COVID-19 is listed as part of the Respiratory disease caused by a novel respiratory pathogen under category 1.
b) The Notifiable Medical Condition list consists of conditions that are of public health concern and need to be put under surveillance for early detection and effective response in case of an outbreak, epidemic or pandemic. There is therefore no time duration of having a condition on the NMC list.
c) Any of the communicable notifiable medical conditions can have more than one variant of the causative agent, therefore it is not practical to amend or update the NMC list whenever a new NMC variant is detected. Information on emerging variants is shared in relevant platforms with public health stakeholders to facilitate clinical management of cases.
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