Singapore — Beginning Monday (Nov 22), groups of up to five people will be allowed to dine in, even if they’re not from the same household. However, increasing the limit further is currently not possible, as Singapore isn’t adopting a “big bang” approach to easing Covid-19 measures.
In a press conference by the Multi-Ministry Taskforce for Covid-19, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced that Singapore was exiting the stabilisation phase and continuing in its transition towards “living with Covid-19.”
In line with the decision, group sizes of gatherings are increased from two to five people. This means that every household can receive up to five distinct visitors a day, and up to five vaccinated persons can dine together at food and beverage outlets, said Mr Wong.
The same dine-in measures will be applied to a selected group of hawker centres and coffee shops, he added.
“With this move to exit the stabilisation phase, we will correspondingly taper down the support measures from the government,” said Mr Wong.
He mentioned that if the public comply with the Covid-19 measures, the country would be able to cope with the increase in daily infections, which is an expected result of easing restrictions.
“Conversely, if we seek to push the limits, let our guard down, we will spark a resurgence of cases which can very quickly overwhelm our hospital system yet again.”
Mr Wong said that the government was trying very hard to avoid such a scenario, which is why measures are being eased incrementally, such as increasing group sizes of social gatherings and dining in only.
“Everything else, we are holding back for the time being,” said Mr Wong, referring to workplace restrictions and capacity limits for attractions and malls.
“This is part of our step-by-step approach to reopening. We want to avoid a sharp resurgence in cases that can easily overwhelm our healthcare system, something which several European countries are now experiencing,” said Mr Wong in a Facebook post on Saturday (Nov 20).
If the situation remains stable, he noted that the next series of moves could be imposed around the end of December.
He urged everyone to continue staying disciplined, practice social responsibility and make steady progress toward a Covid-resilient nation together. /TISG
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Lawrence Wong acknowledges that “perceived flip-flops in COVID-19 strategy” creates frustration
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