Singapore recorded its first COVID-19 case on 23 January 2020. With that, many Singaporeans have purchased and worn masks when not at home; practiced social distancing and on 7 February 2020, Singapore raised the
Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from Yellow to Orange in response to additional local cases of uncertain origin.
Prelude (27 March) On 24 March, the Multi-Ministry Task Force announced stricter measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, after a huge spike in cases originating from returning Singaporeans in the community. These measures include the closure of entertainment venues, tuition and enrichment centres and places of worship. Malls, retail establishments and tourist attractions were required to reduce their crowd density to stay open. Gatherings of more than 10 people outside work and school are prohibited.
Lockdown measures On 3 April 2020, Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong announced a nationwide partial lockdown, known as a
circuit breaker, to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore. These measures came after an increase of unlinked cases over the preceding month, as well as the risk of a huge cluster of infections. Most of the workplaces were converted to
remote work as default during the lockdown and schools were transitioned to
home-based learning thereafter. As dining-in is a high-risk activity; all food establishments were only allowed to offer take-away, drive-thru and delivery of food. Non-essential advertising at shopping centres are not allowed to be shown or advertised and only advertising from essential service offers and safe management measures such as mask wearing and social distancing are allowed. These measures only took effect from 7 April 2020 to 1 June 2020, 16 May 2021 to 13 June 2021 and 22 July 2021 to 9 August 2021. On 14 April,
Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong announced that the wearing of masks became compulsory when not at home with immediate effect, with fines and prosecution for offenders who refuse to do so.
Tightened measures (21 April) After discovering that the unknown number of cases was greater than expected, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on 21 April an extension of the circuit breaker to 1 June. Existing measures were also tightened until 4 May initially, including shrinking the list of essential services, such as closing all close-contact service providers such as hair salons, as well as restricting entry to certain hotspots like wet markets and some essential retail franchises going by the last digit of one's ID number. Popular markets used an odd/even date entry restriction; ID ending with odd numbers are only allowed entry on odd dates of the month and ID ending with even numbers are only allowed entry on even dates on the month. On 21 April, the Ministry of Education brought forward the 4-week school holidays for all MOE Kindergartens, primary, secondary and Pre-University students, which are usually held in June, to May. Institutes of Higher Learning extended their Home-based Learning. The Singapore franchise of
McDonald's also shut all of its restaurants islandwide, as a response to a number of its employees being infected.
Relaxed measures (2 May) Some restrictions were relaxed progressively in stages to prepare for the end of the circuit breaker on 1 June.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops and essential condo activities were allowed to reopen on 5 May, followed by businesses like home-based bakeries, some food shops, barbers (only basic haircuts), manufacturing of confectionery, and laundry shops on 12 May. Schools resumed face-to-face lessons for smaller groups in graduating cohorts and those requiring urgent assistance on 19 May. On 8 May, the MOH announced that all TCM shops are allowed to sell retail products again from 12 May, after receiving feedback from seniors that travelling to the initially allowed 130 TCM medical halls was too far for them. == SafeEntry and TraceTogether ==