SINGAPORE – Singapore will further tighten community safe management measures (SMMs) by going back to Phase 2, or heightened alert, from Thursday to August 18.
The stricter rules will, among others, see the permissible group size for social gatherings reduced from five to two.
In response to growing Covid-19 clusters stemming from karaoke lounges and nightclubs that have pivoted to the food business amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the republic earlier announced a tightening of SMMs under Phase 3 from yesterday to August 8.
More infections linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster have been uncovered since, especially at wet markets and hawker food centres.
“Unlike the earlier KTV (karaoke) cluster that largely affects younger people, the Jurong Fishery Port cluster is spreading among a wider segment of the population, including the elderly, who are at the highest risk should they contract the virus,” Gan Kim Yong, co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF) on Covid-19, told a virtual press conference today.
“(Infections have) also spread to several markets in the community that are frequented by seniors.”
He said 81 people aged 60 and above tested positive for the coronavirus in the past week, with 12 of them yet to be vaccinated.
“This is of great concern to us because almost 30% of the population above 70 years old remains unvaccinated.”
He said nearly 50% of Singapore residents have yet to be fully immunised.
“Given the speed of infections and the rate at which new clusters are growing, we will need to slow the spread of the virus to give us time to raise the coverage of the vaccination programme especially among the older population.”
Between July 12 and 18, said MTF, an average of 46 community cases were detected per day – the highest since April last year.
The work-from-home directive will continue to be in place under Phase 2.
As of Sunday, Singapore had administered 6,794,394 vaccine doses, with 2,747,489 individuals having completed the vaccination regimen.
MTF said it is on track to having two-thirds of the population fully immunised by National Day on August 9, adding that it is aiming for higher coverage among seniors.
As of yesterday, a total of 179 infections were linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster and 193 to the karaoke cluster. – Bernama, July 20, 2021
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