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Customers at a restaurant in Robertson Quay in Singapore. Photo: Bloomberg

Coronavirus: Singapore returns to ‘almost normal’ life with free social gatherings, less scanning, no travel tests

  • All residents can now gather in large groups and stop using the TraceTogether app at most places in the city state, which also axed pre-departure Covid tests
  • The unvaccinated however still won’t be able to visit nightclubs or dine out, while Singapore’s 200,000 migrant workers continue facing restrictions to their freedom
Residents in Singapore still have to wear masks indoors and undergo Covid-19 tests before attending large events, but life largely returns to an “almost normal” as the city state moves away from two years of restrictive pandemic measures on Tuesday.

The decision to do away with rules such as a cap on group sizes for social gatherings to the scanning of the TraceTogether app marks the most significant moment in Singapore’s “living with Covid” journey since the government indicated in May last year it would gradually abandon the zero-Covid strategy.

“After [over] two years, today is really a happy day and marks a very important milestone,” said health minister Ong Ye Kung when officials made the announcement last Friday.

Here are five things about the city state’s (almost complete) return to pre-pandemic days.

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Singapore starts ‘living with the virus’, shedding masks outdoors and allowing quarantine-free entry

Singapore starts ‘living with the virus’, shedding masks outdoors and allowing quarantine-free entry

People free to gather, including the unvaccinated (to some extent)

Since Singapore went into a two-month lockdown in April 2020, people have faced various caps on social gathering sizes, varying from zero to groups of eight, depending on the spread of the virus. It was raised to 10 from March 29.

The restrictions over the past two years affected festivities including the Lunar New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali and Christmas, upsetting residents in the multiethnic state and also the food and beverage sector.

From Tuesday, people can finally meet in however large a group they want – good news for those celebrating the Hari Raya festival on May 3. Singaporeans will also no longer have to keep a distance of 1 metre between each social groups.

For people who have enjoyed working from home, the return to workplaces may not be quite so welcome, as companies no longer face restrictions on how many employees are allowed back.

Joy, free beer, parties: Singapore makes post-Covid shift, but many remain wary

Meanwhile, measures targeting unvaccinated residents will also be removed from most settings on Tuesday. Previously, they were restricted from dining out, going to the workplace, or even entering shopping centres, supermarkets and cinemas.

Unvaccinated people can now return to work, visit malls and go grocery shopping. They will however still not be allowed to enter nightclubs, dine out, or go to events with more than 500 people, since these settings “pose higher risks of transmissions”, the health ministry said.

Vaccination coverage in Singapore is among the highest in the world, with 96 per cent of the eligible population receiving two jabs. Some 73 per cent of its 5.45 million people have taken a booster shot. One in five residents have been infected with the virus.

Diners at Jewel Changi Airport mall in Singapore. Photo: Bloomberg

Contact tracing ‘stepped down’

Going anywhere in Singapore during the pandemic has been an onerous affair of going into the TraceTogether app, and either tapping it to a SafeEntry check-in device or using the app to scan a QR code. Those without smartphones checked in with a TraceTogether token. This process can be repeated multiple times throughout a person’s day if they stopped at any mall, restaurant, hawker centre or shop.

From Tuesday though, people will no longer have to check in when they enter any establishment, unless they are entering nightclubs or attending an event with more than 500 attendees. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said this would result in “significant reduction in SafeEntry check-in points all across the island”, adding that it would reduce costs of operation and was another “key psychological step” towards resuming normalcy.

The TraceTogether app had ruffled feathers early last year when it emerged that police had used the contact tracing data in a murder case investigation, after earlier assurances by the government that the tool would only be used for public health. Lawmakers later passed new legislation to limit scenarios in which law enforcement agencies could access TraceTogether data.

While use of TraceTogether would decline from Tuesday, any generated data can still be used by police and law enforcement officers when it comes to serious offences.

Travellers with their luggage at Singapore’s Changi Airport. Photo: Reuters

Travel like it’s 2019

Singapore has progressively eased travel restrictions since the end of last year, first establishing quarantine-free travel lanes with countries judged to have a similar virus situation, then allowing all vaccinated travellers to enter but with Covid testing.

This changes from Tuesday, when pre-departure tests will no longer be needed. As long as a traveller is vaccinated, they will be able to travel to the city state with just tickets and passport – like it was before the pandemic.

While many Asian cities are aggressively reopening to attract tourists, Singapore has one of the most lax travel testing rules.

Thailand is scrapping its mandatory on-arrival polymerase chain reaction test for foreign visitors, but travellers will still have to take self-administered antigen tests. Hong Kong meanwhile last week announced it would allow non-residents to enter for the first time since the pandemic hit, but tourists would be subject to the same seven-day hotel quarantine as Hong Kong residents.

There are some 200,000 migrant workers in Singapore, mostly working in construction, marine sectors or in cleaning. Photo: AFP

No normalcy yet for migrant workers

While life for most Singapore residents will revert to a semblance of normalcy from Tuesday, tough restrictions remain for the roughly 200,000 low-wage migrant workers who live in dormitories.

These men – many hailing from India, Bangladesh and China, and who work in construction, marine sectors or in cleaning – need to apply for “exit passes” to “visit the community” for a maximum of eight hours per visit.

From Tuesday, more of them will be able to leave their dorms: up to 25,000 on weekdays and up to 50,000 on weekends and public holidays. The quota is an increase from the current 15,000 on weekdays, and 30,000 on weekends and public holidays but still paltry compared to their entire numbers.

These workers bore the brunt of the pandemic when the virus swept through their population in 2020 before vaccinations were available. They have since April 2020 been largely confined to their dormitories even as Singapore reopens, and despite 88 per cent of eligible migrant workers already receiving booster shots since December.

A nurse administers a Covid-19 vaccine in Singapore. File photo: Reuters

Staying prepared

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said it was trust that allowed Singapore to execute its Covid-19 response. In addressing guests at the Singapore General Hospital’s Lecture and Formal Dinner over the weekend, Lee said people abided by “burdensome” measures, endured rounds of easing and tightening of rules, and went for jabs because they trusted the government and the healthcare system.

The lessons from Covid-19 signalled two things for the health sector, he said. First, the city state must continually invest in its healthcare workers and support them with good medical facilities and infrastructure – including building up scientific and biomedical capabilities. Second, there must be an emphasis on public health so the focus is on the health of the overall population, rather than individuals.

The prime-minister-in-waiting, finance chief Lawrence Wong, meanwhile warned that the pandemic was not over. He said the relaxation of rules was “a well-deserved breather after two very difficult years”, and that the relaxation was a “step down” but not a dismantling of rules.

Wong and others on the Covid-19 task force said there would eventually be a new variant and it was impossible to tell how it would behave. If need be, Singapore would reinstate its restrictions, he said.

“We must keep our systems warm so that we can activate them later on if the need arises,” Wong said. “And we hope everyone understands this. So that if and when we need to tighten [the rules], you will be mentally and psychologically prepared for such future scenarios.”

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