Singapore’s Multi-Ministry Task Force today announced 3 phases to reopen the economy, following an announcement of a “formal ending” on June 1.
The “formal ending” however is just a verbal description as exisiting circuit measures will remain “for a few weeks”. The PAP ministers in the committee refused to use the word “extension” to avoid admission to the failure of the circuit breaker measures.
Starting June 2, Phase 1 comprises all existing circuit breaker measures restrictions to remain except:
-Only businesses that require machinery or specialised terminals
-Schools and childcare centres to reopen from June 10. Only Primary 6, Secondary 4 and 5 students to resume school, while all other levels to rotate weekly.
-Places of worship will be open only for private worship and no congregational service allowed
The ministers said Phase 1 is expected to “last a few weeks”, and no deadline was given.
Existing restrictions include:
-Mandatory to wear mask in public
-Fines and jail punishments without warning for failing to wear masks or not observing social distancing
-No dine-in for food courts, coffeeshops, restaurants and all other FnB outlets
-No foreign arrivals allowed, including the closure of the Malaysia-Singapore Causeway and Tuas bridge
-No social gathering
Depending on the number of new cases including foreign worker infection, Phase 2 allow more businesses to open, dine-in at FnB outlets and “small” social gathering. Phase 2 “could last several months” according to Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
Phase 3 will unlock more restrictions and the government will make an announcement of the details at a later date.
However, the number of daily new cases continue to be in the hundreds. Singapore reported 451 new cases today, which means the country is not even ready for phase 1.
There are now 28,794 confirmed cases in Singapore, the highest infection rate in Asia outside China.