Singapore to Shut Bars, Cinemas in New Anti-Virus Measures

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore is introducing its strictest measures yet to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including shutting bars and cinemas and suspending religious services.

The new regulations to be enforced as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday also include deferring or canceling conferences, exhibitions and trade fairs, suspending tuition and enrichment classes and limiting gatherings outside of work or school to a maximum 10 people, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. The measures will remain in place until at least April 30, it said.

“Adjustments are indeed taking place, if you go around, you go out, you will now see that our venues are less crowded,roads are less crowded, but the adjustments are taking place too slowly,” National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said at a press briefing.

“The virus is not going to wait for us. It is continuing to spread,” said Wong, who co-chairs a ministerial task force to tackle the virus.

Singapore reported an additional 49 coronavirus cases as of 12 noon on Tuesday, of which 32 were imported, the government said. The latest additions boost the total since the start of the outbreak to 558.

The city-state recorded the largest single-day spike in cases on Monday, with 54. The increase in imported cases “signals a new phase in our fight” against the virus, the Health Ministry said in its statement.

Imported Cases

The ministry pointed out that the largest source of imported cases has been from the U.S. and U.K., and said it will work with hotel operators to provide dedicated facilities to returnees from these places to serve their 14-day stay-at-home notices. They will be provided with transportation and meals so they can avoid physical contact with any other individuals.

While clamping down on human interaction across a range of venues, Singapore will allow retail malls, museums and attractions to remain open, saying person-to-person contact at these places is more transient. At the same time, operating capacity at such venues needs to reduced to no more than one person per 16 square meters, the government said.

Places of worship such as temples, mosques and churches may also remain open for individual access, subject to group sizes being 10 or fewer. Tuition and center-based enrichment classes are being suspended to reduce the intermingling of students from different schools, the statement said.

‘Higher Category’

Singapore has so far resisted a total lockdown, and has resorted to imposing additional social distancing measures instead. When asked whether the new steps could be seen as a lockdown, Wong said “people use the word lockdown very loosely these days and it means many things to different people.”

The new regulations are of a “higher category” and if they prove effective, the government could then revert back to the lower level of measures which allowed mass gatherings of up to 250 people, Wong said. But the government can also extend the new measures for another month if the situation doesn’t improve, he said.

The additional tightening steps are needed to prevent a wider local transmission of the virus, Wong said. “All of these measures are really preemptive. And that perhaps is a bit of a challenge we have in getting people to take it seriously. In many countries, the various drastic measures have occurred after widespread outbreak,” he said.

School Policy

Schools will continue to remain open. The trigger for shutting them isn’t based on the total number of cases rising, but rather on the risk of widespread community transmission, Wong said.

In the scenario where the number of local cases continue to rise, new local clusters emerge, and the government finds it increasingly unable to establish links among local cases, then it would move on to take more drastic measures, he said.

The ministry said the government will step up enforcement measures against people who contravene their stay-at-home notices. The penalty for offenses is up to S$10,000 or imprisonment for up to six months, under the Infectious Diseases Act, it said.

The new rules will be enforced by a variety of government agencies through licensing conditions, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said at the press briefing. The government doesn’t want to resort to using the police or military personnel to ensure compliance, but it won’t hesitate to deploy them if necessary, he said.

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