Singapore to ease dine-in, social gathering rules as Covid-19 cases fall
- Social gatherings of up to five people will be allowed from Monday, up from two
- Singapore’s daily Covid-19 cases fall below 2,000-3,000 average recorded in recent weeks
Singapore will from Monday ease strict Covid-19 restrictions that were reimposed in September after its biggest outbreak of the Delta variant, though officials emphasised further reopening would be done in an incremental manner.
With over 85 per cent of the country’s 5.45 million people vaccinated – and some 22 per cent having received booster shots – some citizens have taken to social media to express annoyance at the government’s cautious approach to easing the measures.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a business forum on Wednesday that while the government was pressing ahead with its plan to treat Covid-19 as endemic, he hoped its “step by step” approach would ensure the city state would not bear witness to the immense “human cost” seen in other countries where health care systems had been overwhelmed.
Officials from the republic’s Covid-19 task force said on Saturday that starting on Monday social gatherings of up to five people would be allowed, up from the current two.
Vaccinated residents – regardless of which household they are from – would also be able to dine out in groups of five.
Health minister Ong Ye Kung – one of three co-leads of the Covid-19 task force – said that the number of Covid-19 patients falling severely ill, who need intensive care units (ICUs) or who have died, have come down. This comes as more seniors, whom authorities say were at highest risk of being critically ill, get vaccinated.
