Singapore to Reopen More Businesses as Virus Seen Controlled
Singapore to Reopen More Businesses as Virus Is Seen Controlled
(Bloomberg) -- Singapore will allow more businesses to reopen on June 2 -- increasing the active proportion of the economy to three-quarters -- after a nationwide lockdown cut transmission of the coronavirus among citizens and permanent residents.
Restrictions will be eased in three phases -- allowing more businesses to resume operations and schools to reopen -- provided “community” infection rates remain low during the current so-called “circuit breaker” lockdown ending June 1 and health workers are protected, officials said at a press briefing Tuesday.
The government will extend more support to businesses and their workers, with a priority on companies that remain closed on June 1, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat is expected to announce details of a fourth stimulus package next Tuesday in Parliament.
“We have to do this in a very careful and calibrated manner,” Wong said. “I hope we can all maintain our discipline for a while longer.”
Key points on what will reopen on June 2:
- Businesses in manufacturing and production such as semiconductors and engineering, and those in sectors like finance, insurance, wholesale, transportation and storage that don’t require public interaction.
- About a third of workers will be able to resume work on site, while others continue to work from home.
- The measures will allow normal operations for more than three-quarters of the economy.
- Additional consumer services such as motor vehicle servicing, all hairdressing services, school bookshops.
- Most retail outlets will not re-open immediately, and dining in at food and beverage outlets will continue to be disallowed for now.
- Schools will gradually reopen.
- Each household will be able to visit the household of parents and grandparents, subject to restrictions.
Three Phases
The first of a three-phase reopening, starting June 2, will likely take about four to six weeks, according to officials. The second period, where more businesses such as restaurants, retail outlets and gyms may reopen, could take months.
The final and third phase, whereby social and business gatherings would have resumed with limited crowd sizes, will likely last until a vaccine is discovered or the disease is deemed non-threatening, they said. Under the third phase, services and activities that involve significant prolonged close contact such as spas and massages, or significant crowd management risk in an enclosed space like cinemas, bars and nightclubs would also have been allowed to re-open.
“I can understand that we have been in the circuit breaker for some time,” Wong said during the briefing of the measures in place since early April. “People have been disciplined so far, but the feeling of being cooped up at home for a long period is starting to take its effect on people.”
“We call on everyone to do their part as we prepare for this new phase of reopening.”
Borders Reopening
Officials said that a critical pre-condition for the country to be able to move into the next phase or ease certain measures further within each phase is to have improved capabilities to control and contain any subsequent outbreaks. This involves expanding testing capacity, speeding up contact tracing, and ensuring sufficient health care capacity.
Meanwhile, Singapore will gradually reopen its borders for citizens to conduct essential activities and to allow “safe travel” for foreigners entering or transiting through the city-state.
The government is exploring “green lane” arrangements with unspecified countries for which essential travel in limited numbers and with safeguards can be conducted safely. Those countries are assessed to be at equivalent or lower risk of community transmission as Singapore.
With the global situation remaining volatile, such moves will be assessed and implemented separately from the timing of the three phases of re-opening, according to officials. The city-state will consider expanding to other countries gradually as global conditions improve.
Singapore’s latest easing comes after the city-state allowed some workplaces and services to resume operations last week. Singapore will also allow more construction laborers to return to work from June 2, in a bid to restart an economy that has been largely shut because of the coronavirus pandemic, while it plans to test 30,000 preschool staff for the virus to prepare for the re-opening of the facilities.
Singapore is still racing to contain an infection outbreak among thousands of foreign workers, which have pushed its total tally to nearly 29,000 cases as of Tuesday and made the tiny city-state one of Asia’s most infected nations. The situation in the dormitories has stabilized and new community cases has also declined significantly, officials said Tuesday.
The government has however cautioned that cases in the community will go up as the country restarts activities, and the move to relax must be done in a way to prevent a second wave of infections.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.