The maximum group size for dining-in at food and beverage (F&B) outlets is expected to increase to five persons from next Monday (12 July), said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in Parliament on Monday (5 July).
This came two weeks after the Government allowed dining in and indoor mask-off sports to resume in group sizes of up to two persons from 21 June.
Speaking in Parliament earlier today, Mr Wong noted that Singapore is in a “much better position to deal with the pandemic now than at the start”, given the country’s robust public health defences and capabilities in testing and contact tracing of COVID-19, as well as the vaccines.
“These additional measures have worked in curbing the spread of the virus, while allowing most parts of the economy to continue operating.
“So that is why we started to ease the restrictions from 14 June, when we moved from phase two to phase three (heightened alert); and we expect to open up further from 12 July to allow larger groups of five people to dine together,” said the Minister.
He explained that the latest COVID-19 outbreaks did not warrant an economy-wide circuit breaker like last year, instead, more calibrated measures were adopted “based on the severity of the outbreaks”.
According to Mr Wong, the country moved into phase two heightened alert on 16 May after the emergence of new clusters, “most notably” at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Changi Airport, as well as the sustained increase in unlinked community cases.
The Government introduced measures that were aimed at reducing transmission risks in indoor settings where people do not have their masks on, and where there is a higher chance of large clusters forming, he added.
