Additional 334 cases; compulsory to wear mask outdoors and list of 'essential' companies to be shortened

A total of 114 cases remain unlinked and are pending contact tracing. Of these, 24 are Singapore citizens while the remaining 98 are long-term pass holders.

To date, 10 have succumbed to the virus, with the latest death being a 70-year old male Singapore citizen who passed on from complications due to the Covid-19 infection on Tuesday. He had tested positive for the virus on Mar 6.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong noted that Singaporeans have by and large been taking the one-week-long circuit-breaker measures that took effect on Apr 7, seriously. For one, 80% of the work force is now working from home, says Gan, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force set up to handle the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, he stressed that “we remain in a critical situation [as] the number of cases has been increasing”. This is especially as the number of cases hit an all-time high on 386 on Monday.

Stemming the spread among foreign workers

Specifically, the spike is among foreign workers staying in dormitories which now stand at about 200 cases per day, noted Gan.

“This increase is likely to continue as we undertake more testing in the dormitories. The outbreak in the foreign worker dormitories has become an important front in our fight against Covid-19,” he added.

So far, eight out of 43 purpose-built worker dormitories in Singapore have been gazetted as isolation areas, meaning residents are to be quarantined in their rooms.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that the “epidemiological spread happened at common work sites and social gatherings during the workers’ days off”, before the start of the circuit-breaker.

The government has now adopted a three-pronged approach to curb a further spread amongst workers.

These include locking down the dormitories such that there is no in and outflow of workers while identifying and isolating persons infected in the dormitories with existing clusters.

Meanwhile, the 29 dormitories that are not deemed as clusters will also effectively be put under a lockdown to prevent clusters from forming.

Lastly, some 7,000 workers in essential services industries such as energy and telecommunications have been relocated to vacant Housing Development Board flats and floatels to prevent them from contracting the virus.

Stricter measures

And to curb the spread among the general population, the task force has now made it mandatory to wear a mask when stepping out of the house.

Individuals caught refusing to wear a mask will be fined $300 for their first offence, while repeat offenders will be slapped with a $1,000 fine. Egregious cases will be prosecuted in court, noted National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.

Foreign residents caught flouting these rules risk having their work passes or permanent residency status revoked.

Wong says these requirements have been updated based on the “latest medical and scientific advice”.

“Now that we have distributed the mask to everyone and generally people have started to the new requirements or the advisory, we are making it mandatory for all,” stressed Wong.

“The minute you leave your house, you have to wear a mask”. Exemptions will be granted to children aged below two as well adults engaging in strenuous exercise such as running and jogging.

Wong went on to appeal to Singaporeans to maintain safe distancing practices. “Please do not use this mask-wearing requirement now to say ‘ok, I can go out now’”.

“You should not go out as much as possible. Just stay at home. But in the rare occasion that you do need to go out for purchase of your groceries or essentials, then it’s only at that time that you wear a mask,” he added.

Acknowledging the challenges of adjusting to the circuit breaker measures, Wong said the government has had to reject many appeals for activities to be consider an ‘essential service’ to stay operational.

Shorter “essential” list

The task force is now reviewing its list of essential services and will look to further tighten the operations of companies categorised as ‘essential’.

Details will be announced once finalised said Wong, adding the task force “will trim it down as much as we can”.

With the number of cases slated to rise in the next few days, the task force says the circuit breaker or the requirement to wear masks in public may even extend beyond the scheduled May 4.

“We cannot let up at this stage. These are still early days and we have at least another three more weeks to go. So, we have to double down on our efforts and just stay at home,” said Wong.