Singapore's Multi-Ministry Taskforce on COVID-19 announced on May 19 a three-phased approach to resuming economic and social activities safely, post-circuit breaker.
Beginning on June 2, the reopening will be done "in a very careful and calibrated manner", Minister Lawrence Wong said.
Here is a summary of what will happen at each stage, at a glance:
Phase 1: (Safe Reopening)
Businesses that will re-open:
- Manufacturing and production facilities, such as semiconductors and medical technology;
- Businesses with employees working in offices and settings that do not require interactions with large groups of people, such as finance & insurance, and IT & info services.
- Selected services such as motor vehicle servicing, aircon servicing, basic pet grooming services, school bookshops and retail shops selling school uniforms
- Hairdressers and barbers to resume offering all hairdressing services, beyond basic haircut services
- Home-based businesses that operate using a delivery/collection model
Tele-commuting must be adopted to the maximum extent in businesses that re-open. This means those who have been working from home so far should keep doing so, and employees should not go to the office unless necessary.
Businesses that will remain closed:
- Most retail outlets and other personal services
- Dining in at F&B outlets will continue to be disallowed
Community interactions:
- Each household will be allowed to visit their parents or grandparents staying elsewhere, but every household to limit such visits to only one per day, and to not more than two persons from the visiting household
- Dropping off children at parents’ and grandparents’ homes for childcare will also be allowed, subject to the same limit of two visitors from the same visiting household per day.
- Marriages solemnisations involving up to 10 persons will be allowed to take place in-person again.
- Places of worship can re-open for private worship – with up to 5 members of the same household praying together at any one time
- Families can continue to gather for wakes and funerals, with no more than 10 persons at any one time.
- Sports and recreation facilities to remain closed.
- Other non-essential activities and social gatherings are still prohibited
School reopening:
- Preschools to gradually re-open by levels from June 2, with full resumption by 10 Jun
- Primary and secondary tudents from graduating cohorts will attend school daily. Other cohorts will rotate weekly, alternating between Home-Based Learning (HBL) and returning to school for lessons
- For Junior Colleges (JCs) and Millennia Institute (MI), up to half of students will return school at any one time. Graduating students will be prioritised, with some rotation of students from the other levels.
- At polytechnics, lessons and tutorials will remain online. At the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), students will rotate weekly between online and on-campus lessons. For both, students will return primarily for practical and lab sessions.
- Students from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Singapore University of Technology and Design will carry on with online lectures and tutorials. They will return primarily for practical and lab sessions, including capstone and final-year projects. Students from other autonomous universities will be having their vacation.
Phase 1 will be in place for a few weeks, and if community transmission rates remain low, Singapore can then move to Phases 2 and 3 in subsequent weeks.
Phase 2: (Safe Transition)
- What’s expected to be allowed:
- Social activities in small groups
- More firms and businesses will gradually be allowed to re-open – starting with F&B dine-in and retail outlets, gyms and fitness studios, and tuition and enrichment centres
- All students to fully return to school
- Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) will increase the number of students back on campus at any one time for face-to-face learning
- Sports, recreation and outdoor facilities will start to reopen
Depending on the COVID-19 situation and the government's risk assessment, measures will be eased gradually until Singapore reach a new normal in Phase 3.
Phase 3: (Safe Nation)
This will be the ‘new normal’ for Singapore, a state that will remain till an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 is developed.
What’s expected to be allowed:
- Social, cultural, religious and business gatherings or events would have resumed
- Gathering sizes would have to be limited in order to prevent large clusters from arising.
- Seniors would be able to resume day-to-day activities
- Safe distancing measures need to be practised, peak period travel, crowded places and large groups need to be avoided.
- Services and activities that involve significant prolonged close contact or significant crowd management risk in an enclosed space will be allowed to re-open.T hese include spas and massages, cinemas, theatres, bars, pubs and nightclubs.
