Singapore will move to phase 2 of its reopening after 18 June (Thursday) 11:59pm, COVID-19 multi-ministry task force announced on Monday (15 June).
The move into phase two will see most activities—subject to safe distancing measures—allowed to resume. These activities include social gatherings in groups of five and allowing households to receive up to five visitors at any one time.
Moving into Phase 2
“Community infection rates have remained generally stable despite the increase in workplace activity in Phase One of re-opening. The incidence of cases in migrant worker dormitories has also declined, and there are no new large clusters emerging,” the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
“In this next phase, our goal is to ensure that efforts [were] taken during the circuit breaker period and Phase One of reopening are sustained,” it said, adding that further reopening must be done safely, with limits to capacity and group sizes, to avoid “raising the risk of new clusters of infections.”
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What Will Be Allowed In Phase 2?
- Social gatherings of up to any five persons can resume
- Households may receive up to five visitors at any one time.
- Tuition and other private enrichment classes can resume, with the exception of singing or voice training classes.
- Retail businesses may reopen their physical outlets.
- Food and beverage (F&B) dine-in will be allowed, with up to five persons allowed to sit together. Tables must be spaced one metre apart. Outlets will have to cease liquor sales and consumption at 10.30pm. However, live music and television and video screenings will not be allowed in all F&B outlets at this stage.
- Larger public venues with high human traffic such as malls and large standalone retail outlets will be subject to capacity limits, and operators will be required to prevent crowds or long queues from building up within and in the immediate vicinity of their premises.
- Personal health and wellness, and home-based services will be allowed to resume.
- Registered clubs and societies will be allowed to operate at their registered premises.
- Aesthetic services will resume.
- All other healthcare services, including elder care services in the community, individual health screenings will resume with safe distancing measures in place.
- Face-to-face visitations at residential facilities for the elderly, including nursing homes, welfare homes, sheltered homes and adult disability homes, will also resume.
- Sports, parks and other public facilities including playgrounds, beaches, lawns and fields, stadia, swimming complexes, sports halls, hard courts, gyms, fitness studios, bowling centres and function rooms will open. This also applies to similar facilities in private settings such as condominiums and clubs.
Students From All Levels Will Return To School Daily
Apart from the safe management principles, specific rules will apply to some events and settings such as in schools.
The authorities announced that students from all levels will return to school daily from 29 June 2020. Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have been conducting most lessons online, except for practical and laboratory-based lessons, and will gradually increase the number of students back on campus for face-to-face learning. “The Ministry of Education will share more details later this week,” the task force said.
Image source: Ministry of Education (MOE)/Facebook
Safe reopening
According to the task force, measures should be put in place to ensure that individuals maintain safe distancing of at least one metre at all times as a default.
“Where not feasible or practical to apply one-metre safe distancing between individuals, this one-metre requirement can instead be enforced between groups, with each group made up of not more than five persons, and with no mixing between groups,” the statement said.
It is noted that on 1 June, Singapore exited a two-month-long “circuit breaker” period designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 here. The government then said that Singapore will “embark on a three-phased approach to resume activities safely.“
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In Phase 1, some activities that have been allowed such as visiting parents and places of worship with restrictions. Preschools gradually reopened and a system including a mix of home-based learning and in-classroom learning was set in place to allow students to return to school.
In May, the government said Phase 2 would involve the gradual reopening of more firms and services—”almost the entire economy will re-open, subject to safe management measures being in place.“