BARS AND PUBS, AMONG OTHERS, NOT REOPENING SOON

The Phase 2 of Post Circuit Breaker started on June 19 and it has been about 2 weeks since the CB was lifted.

However, Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) co-chair Lawrence Wong said in a press conference on July 2 that the existing rules will not be relaxed “anytime soon” because Phase 2 is still in its infancy.

Wong stated: “We said before that Phase 2 will continue for months before we are likely to enter Phase 3, which would be effectively the new steady state until a vaccine is found for the virus. So that assessment remains.”

He continued: “And what does months mean, it’s really hard to pinpoint at this stage, because we are just really two weeks into Phase 2, it’s still early days.”

The government had previously mentioned that certain rules could be relaxed, but not anytime soon which essentially means:

1. Social gatherings will continue to be limited to groups of five
2. Bars and pubs will not reopen anytime soon
3. Large-scale events, sporting or otherwise, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions), concerts, and similar programmes are unlikely to resume anytime soon.

Wong also added that: “We do expect the number of cases to go up as Minister Gan has highlighted, because we are testing more aggressively, because we are casting a wider net and we are doing more active case-finding,”