Singapore: Gan Kim Yong, co-chair of the multi-ministerial COVID-19 working group, announced that from Wednesday (November 10), up to five fully vaccinated people from the same family can eat out together.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) stated in another press release that the relaxation of eating out restrictions does not apply to people from different families, where the upper limit is still two fully vaccinated people.
The ministry stated that it also does not apply to hawker centres and coffee shops, because restaurants must be able to conduct “comprehensive” vaccination checks.
“Once they take additional control measures, we are ready to extend the same concessions to hawker centers and coffee shops.”
The ministry stated that the National Environment Agency and Singapore Food Authority will contact hawker associations and coffee shop operators in this regard, and provide further updates when they are ready.
Starting from Wednesday, restaurants will also be allowed to play “soft recorded music”, but live music and entertainment activities will still be banned.
Social gatherings are still limited to a maximum of two people and should be held once a day, whether in another home or in a public place. The upper limit for family visitors remains unchanged, twice a day; this does not apply to grandchildren under the care of grandparents.
“SITUATION STABILISING”
Mr. Gan pointed out at a press conference on Monday that although Singapore is still recording more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, the situation has stabilized in the past two weeks.
“The infection week ratio has fallen below one in the past few days, and it was 0.81 on November 7. The number of hospitalized cases and the proportion of severe cases have also remained stable,” he said.
Mr. Gan thanked Singaporeans for “working together” to slow the spread of COVID-19. He said: “As the situation stabilizes, we can now better relax some safety management measures without overwhelming our healthcare system.”
The Ministry of Health stated that although the number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals and intensive care units is still high, the situation is stable-ICU utilization is “hovering around 70%.”
Mr. Gan said that the authorities will also explore further relaxation of measures for fully vaccinated people, through differentiated safety management measures for vaccination and pre-event testing.
This will first resume piloting more activities for those who are fully vaccinated in sports and specific meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) events. The Ministry of Health said that if successful, it will expand to other environments.
Mr. Gan said that more school activities will also resume, including face-to-face classes, group work and extracurricular activities.
“These are very important to our children’s education,” said Mr. Gan, who is also the Minister of Trade and Industry. He added that the Ministry of Education will provide more details later.
Increase the capacity of movie theaters, live performances and MICE events. He said that the company’s safety management measures will also be improved to “better promote operations.”
