Coronavirus: Singapore extends two-person limit on dining in, social gatherings as hospitals risk ‘being overwhelmed’

Two-person limit on groups will stay until November 21, as minister Lawrence Wong warns isolation beds and intensive care units are filling up

But city state is pushing on with border reopenings amid other positive signs. While cases show no indications of falling, 99 per cent experience mild symptoms or none at all

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People dine in groups of two at a mall in Singapore; the restriction is now to stay until November 21. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:54pm, 20 Oct 2021Updated: 10:08pm, 20 Oct 2021

Singapore officials said on Wednesday that tighter social gathering measures first put in place in late September would be extended for four weeks, as the country’s health-care system comes under strain from rising Covid-19 hospitalisations despite a high national vaccination rate.

The measures – which limit dining in and all social gatherings to groups of two – have caused frustration among vaccinated residents who had hoped authorities would speed up a plan to “live with the virus”.

But Lawrence Wong, the finance minister and co-chair of the government’s virus task force, warned that if the present trajectory continued Singapore would “face considerable risk of the health-care system being overwhelmed”.

He said that close to 90 per cent of the country’s hospital isolation beds had been filled, and more than two-thirds of its 200 intensive care units (ICUs) were occupied.

Health minister Ong Ye Kung said more ICU beds would be opened up if necessary – taking the number to 300 – but that would come at the expense of normal medical care. He had in July said that Singapore was able to increase ICU capacity to 1,000.

Addressing calls from the Restaurant Association of Singapore to allow people from the same household to dine out in groups of up to five, Wong said the government was looking into this but “for now, we think it’s still too risky”.