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Covid-19: McDonald’s to scrap takeaway from April 18 but delivery, ‘drive-thru’ options remain

SINGAPORE — From Saturday (April 18), those craving a McDonald’s meal during the circuit breaker period can get their fix only via the fast food chain’s delivery system, GrabFood or “drive-thru” outlets.

A McDonald's outlet at Chinatown Point. In a statement on Friday, the fast food chain said that all of its restaurants here will temporarily remove takeaways until May 4 as an added safety precaution to “flatten” the Covid-19 curve.

A McDonald's outlet at Chinatown Point. In a statement on Friday, the fast food chain said that all of its restaurants here will temporarily remove takeaways until May 4 as an added safety precaution to “flatten” the Covid-19 curve.

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SINGAPORE — From Saturday (April 18), those craving a McDonald’s meal during the circuit breaker period can get their fix only via the fast food chain’s delivery system, GrabFood or “drive-thru” outlets.

In a statement on Friday, McDonald’s said that all of its restaurants here will temporarily remove takeaways until May 4 as an added safety precaution to “flatten” the Covid-19 curve.

McDonald’s said that the decision to stop takeaways at its outlets here was a “proactive move to keep (its) customers and employees safe”.

It added that it would continue to pay the salaries of employees whose roles would be disrupted over the next few weeks.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health said that there was one more Covid-19 case that has been linked to the fast food chain.

This was on top of the five McDonald’s employees that had tested positive on Sunday. The five had worked at outlets at Lido, Forum Galleria, Parklane and Geylang East Central. 

McDonald’s on Friday said that by temporarily stopping its takeaway service, it would be able to reduce the interaction between its customers and employees.

It added that this will also enable more of its senior employees to stay at home over the next two weeks.

“We know that temporarily suspending takeaways will cause some inconveniences to our customers and we ask for their understanding,” said the chain’s Singapore managing director Kenneth Chan.

McDonald’s added that the staff strength will be adjusted accordingly in each outlet, and employees will be deployed to ensure that delivery riders wait for food pick-ups in a safe environment within the outlets’ premises and comply strictly with social distancing measures.

“We are extremely grateful to all our McDonald’s frontliners for their hard work and continued support of our customers during these challenging times,” said Mr Chan.

He added: “As we’ve said before, our priority since the start of the pandemic has always been about keeping our employees, our customers and our restaurants safe, and we are determined to stay united with the rest of Singapore to flatten the curve.”

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McDonald's circuit breaker coronavirus Covid-19 GrabFood drive-thru

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