Everything About S’pore’s New Measures That’ll Close Many Places From 26 Mar, 11:59pm

2020-03-24 , 8:56 pm

Haven’t watched Sonic The Hedgehog and intended to watch it? Or itching for a KTV session with your long-lost friends?

Well, be a socially responsible person and just abandon these plans.

Because Singapore’s implementing measures that might not be a lockdown, but it sure feels like one.

Everything About S’pore New Measures That’ll Close Many Places From 26 Mar, 11:59pm

With 49 new cases reported today, Singapore is going to go on overdrive again to make sure we all do our social distancing right.

All just so we can flatten the curve.

From 26 March 2020, 11:59pm onwards, Singapore’s going to look a lot different.

These closures are expected to end on 30 April 2020.

Entertainment Places

For a start, all bars and entertainment centres will be closed. This includes night clubs, discos, cinemas and karaoke outlets—basically any places that’ll allow you to be on close contact with another person over a period of time.

Other public venues that only have transient contact (e.g. malls) can still remain open, but they must ensure that these are done:

Groups to be less than 10 people
Open atrium sale events will be suspended
1-m spacing between everyone must be enforced
Crowds should be dispersed quickly

Any of those public venues that fail to fulfil these requirements would need to be closed.

Also, organized tours in public venues will be suspended.

As for F&B outlets, the new rule is that any group of diners must be limited to 10 people or fewer—in fact, you should really do that even if you makan at home.

Tuition Centres

Here’s one for the students to cheer: all centre-based tuition and enrichment classes will be suspended. The goal is to ensure that students from different schools won’t pass the virus to each other and create a cluster.

To those tuition centre owners who’re eyeing for a school closure so that their business would pick up: karma has, unfortunately, shot you on your foot.

Places of Worship

For a start, all religious services and congregations will be suspended.

While places of worship (e.g. temples, mosques, churches) may remain open, it’s only for private worship and essential rites, subject to group sizes of 10 persons or fewer at any one time. In other words, mosques will still be closed for Friday prayers.

Private / Mass Events

Previously, events and gatherings above 250 are banned. Now, even events that have less than 250 would be banned regardless of the size. This would include non-ticketed events.

But what if you want to celebrate your birthday or hold a wedding?

Well, now’s a good time to cancel your birthday party and reflect on your life so far, or postpone your wedding to decide if you really want to get married (I’m joking; you can tell, right?).

If not, you are advised not to hold them if you have a group of 10 people in your party. That would be good for me since I have only 5 friends for my birthday party.

For funerals and wakes, attendance should be limited as far as possible to family members only, and gatherings of 10 or fewer people at any one point.

Activities for Seniors

All activities for seniors will also suspended until 30 April 2020; previously, it was mentioned that the suspension would only be for two weeks from 11 March 2020, but that’s been extended.

If you’ve parents who often join these activities, you might want to tell them to download an exercise app for senior to keep fit at home temporarily.

People Who Still Want to Travel Will Have to Pay for Their Own COVID-19 Treatment

The authorities have said it a million times: stay at home. Stay in your country. Don’t travel. Vote for us.

Now, if you die die refuse to heed the advice because your life is more important than the lives of 5.8 Singapore residents, you’d need to pay for your own treatment if you’re infected with COVID-19. Think your insurance will cover you?

No—you will also not be able to claim from MediShield Life or Integrated Shield Plans for these treatments at public and private hospitals. This will apply to people who travel from 27 March 2020.

So just stay at home. Download our app to read articles that try too hard to be funny just so we can provide information with entertainment, or simply subscribe to Netflix if you haven’t done so. Check out our YouTube channel as well.

This might not be a lockdown, but given that new measures are implemented every few days, it sure feels like one.

You can read more about all the measures here.

You can do your part as a responsible citizen through helping out in contact tracing by downloading the TraceTogether app.

In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website here and registering for the Gov.sg’s WhatsApp service here.