Singapore PM says can relax social curbs if local virus situation improves

Singapore should be able to relax recently imposed restrictions on social gatherings after two weeks if the local COVID-19 situation continues to improve, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

“The number of daily cases has come down. Barring another super-spreader or big cluster, we should be on track to bring this outbreak under control,” Lee said in a speech.

The current restrictions are to last until June 13.

Lee also said he expected two-thirds of residents to have received at least one dose of a vaccine by early July and that contact tracing and testing would be increased and expedited. He said he had received confirmation of faster deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines over the next two months.

Singapore re-imposed some restrictions on social gatherings this month, the toughest since exiting a lockdown last year, to combat a recent spike in local COVID-19 infections.

Although Singapore’s cases are only a fraction of those recorded in neighbouring countries, the outbreak follows months of reporting few or no local cases each day. Authorities say the new measures are working.

The city-state has been using the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and has taken delivery of 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccines, although it has yet to be granted emergency use authorization.

The island-state confirmed 16 new local COVID-19 cases on Monday, down from a high of 38 on May 16.

Photo: A person walks past the Merlion Statue and the financial district in Singapore. EPA-EFE/WALLACE WOON