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Singapore will push back plans to ease limits on home gatherings and other pandemic curbs as a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak tests the country’s pivot to living with the virus.
The plans to ease and simplify some virus rules in phases, originally due to happen on Feb. 25 and March 4, will be delayed, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health on Thursday. This is because of the current surge in daily cases and the extensive work needed to go through detailed rules that have accumulated across different settings over the past two years, it said.
The Southeast Asian financial hub this month said it intended to substantially relax travel and social restrictions once the current wave of infections peaks, in contrast to rival city Hong Kong’s approach. Still, the wave may take a few weeks yet to subside, and authorities have appealed to the public to stay home and recover if symptoms are mild, to avoid straining the health care system. This comes as local cases breach 20,000 for the second straight day.
The government will shortly announce a revised effective date for the consolidated easing of restrictions in one go instead. The country will keep to current measures in the meantime, according to the health ministry on Thursday.
The planned easing of some rules included allowing groups of five to visit homes at any one time, social gatherings of up to five people at workplaces, as well as the resumption of team sports. Other rules were due to be simplified and updated, such as dropping the 1 meter safe distancing requirement in mask-on environments. This will include letting people wash their hands side-by-side in public toilets or sit next to each other on park benches.
Not all rules will be dropped however. For example, mask wearing remains the default in the island nation.
