Singapore is set to further ease restrictions from March 29, in line with its move to treating Covid-19 as endemic, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on March 24. The move will allow more businesses and social activities to resume as the Omicron wave has crested and is now subsiding. “With many of us already exposed to the virus and recovered, our population has stronger immunity. Crucially, our healthcare system — while under considerable stress — remains resilient,” adds Lee.
Come midnight on March 29, people will be allowed to gather socially in groups of up to 10 persons, double the five-person cap that is currently in place. Offices can have up to 75% of their employees back at the workplace, up from the current 50%. Meanwhile, the capacity limit for larger events and settings, which has over 1,000 attendees, will be increased to 75%.
Another key change is that the mandate for wearing masks outdoors will be lifted for the first time since it was imposed in April 2020 when Singapore entered into the two-month-long “circuit breaker”. The move comes as the risk of outdoor transmission of the coronavirus is significantly lower, noted Lee. He adds that mask-wearing will still be mandatory indoors while the one-metre safe distancing requirement between groups be maintained in mask-off settings to minimise the transmission of the coronavirus.
These changes come in tandem with a substantial easing in cross-border travel, in hopes of reconnecting Singapore with the world. All fully-vaccinated travellers and non-fully vaccinated children below the age of 12 can enter Singapore from midnight on April 1 without an entry approval or designated Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) passport. They will still be required to take a pre-departure test within two days of their departure but will no longer be required to serve a Stay-Home Notice or undergo an unsupervised Antigen Rapid Test (ART) on arrival.
In another move, from midnight of April 1, fully-vaccinated travellers from Singapore and Malaysia can cross the land border without undergoing quarantine or testing. Before the pandemic, the border was one of the busiest land border crossings in the world, with around 400,000 travellers passing through daily.
Lee also unveiled a new Vaccinated Travel Framework that will let Singaporeans travel abroad more easily, “almost like before Covid-19”. For one, fully-vaccinated Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders will no longer be required to foot the bill for Covid treatment received in hospitals or community facilities, even if they test positive within 14 days of their return to the country.
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Lee notes that the new travel policies will give a much-needed boost to businesses and “help Singapore reclaim its position as a business and aviation hub”. The republic’s neighbours Malaysia and Thailand have already opened to all vaccinated travellers such that they do not have to quarantine on arrival. At present, Singapore only allows quarantine-free entry for those using its VTLs with 32 countries.
Other upcoming changes include allowing the sale of alcohol at food & beverage establishments past 10.30pm as well as the resumption of live performances and the broadcast of programme entertainment at all venues. “[This] marks a pivoting, not a dismantling of our Covid-19-related measures,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who co-chairs the Covid-19 multi-ministry taskforce briefing, said on March 24. “We cannot abruptly dismantle all our measures because that means letting down our guard and that will result in the virus coming back to impact us and heart us,” he adds.
The city-state, which has a population of 5.45 million, saw the number of Covid-19 infections crossing the 1-million mark last weekend. The bulk of the infections this year came from the highly transmissible Omicron variant which swept through the population, resulting in over 25,000 daily cases at its peak. However, with 92% of the population fully vaccinated and 71% having received the booster shot, most cases have mild or no symptoms and are recovering from home.
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Living with the virus
Calling the latest slew of relaxations a “major milestone” in Singapore’s Covid-19 journey, Lee says the move was decided on after looking at the healthcare system. However, he cautioned that we must be “psychologically prepared for more twists and turns ahead” in case “more aggressive and dangerous mutants will turn up, just like Delta did”.
Even so, the announcement has given residents and business owners alike some reason to cheer. Twenty-seven-year-old Nicole Lee feels that the move was long overdue. “Many European countries were already easing their restrictions in end-2021 and earlier this year. So, I was really looking forward to Singapore doing the same,” says the civil servant. She is now looking forward to having a “proper gathering” with her family and friends, many of whom she has not seen in the past two years.
Bar owner Sharad Nathan is similarly looking forward to nightlife spots opening up their shutters to consumers. The 37-year-old had shut down his bar along Clarke Quay in mid-2020 after it “just made no sense to keep it going”. He is now looking for another place so he can have a fresh start. “It has been two years — that is a long time. I cannot wait for business to resume,” says Nathan.
Lee and Nathan’s feelings resonate with Selena Ling, head of treasury and research at OCBC Bank. Calling Lee’s address a “bold step towards living with Covid-19 and rather than living under the shadow of it,” she notes that the move will give consumers and businesses the confidence that the pandemic is indeed being treated as endemic.
While the growth of Singapore’s economy would still be affected by a plethora of factors including inflation and the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, Ling is looking forward to faster improvements in visitor numbers and private consumption appetite in the months ahead. “The move to relax the number of people dining-in and allowing the alcohol sales [after 10.30pm] may be an important lifeline for the domestic food and beverage, retail and entertainment industries,” she adds.
The local stock market greeted the news positively, with aviation and travel-related counters on the local bourse edging up soon after. Flag carrier Singapore Airlines led the jump with a gain of 4.25% to close at $5.40 on March 24 while its maintenance arm SIA Engineering was up 4.48% to close at $2.33. Group handler SATS, meanwhile, was up 5.04% to $4.17; Genting Singapore was up 3.77% to 82.5 cents. The casino resort operator was the third most heavily traded counter on March 24. Taxi and bus operator ComfortDelGro was also heavily traded, up 4.23% to $1.48.
Cover image: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore
