McDonald’s clarifies unvaccinated children 12 and below can dine in after customer mistakenly turned away

SINGAPORE — McDonald's has clarified that unvaccinated children aged 12 and below are allowed to dine in at its outlets, in line with Singapore's Covid-19 safety measures, after a customer recently wrote about her child being turned away from the fast food joint.

The customer had written in a private Facebook group called Sengkang/Punggol/Hougang Mommies Club that she had visited the Mcdonald’s outlet at Punggol 21 Community Centre with her seven-year-old child for lunch on Thursday (Jan 6) but was told by a staff member that they would not be allowed to dine in as her child was unvaccinated. 

But in response to TODAY's queries, McDonald's clarified on Friday that she should have been allowed to dine in with her child. 

“We welcome customers to dine in safely, in line with prevailing safety measures. This includes welcoming unvaccinated children aged 12 years and below to dine in if accompanied by a vaccinated adult," the company said in a statement. 

"We are aware of a possible incident involving a mother and unvaccinated child who may have been turned away. We have taken the opportunity to remind our restaurant teams of the latest safe management measures and look forward to serving all customers safely.” 

Under current Covid-19 safety measures, unvaccinated customers are not allowed to dine in and can only buy food to take away. This rule applies to all food and beverage establishments, including restaurants, hawker centres and food courts. 

But unvaccinated children aged 12 years and below are exempted and can dine in at these establishments as long as they are accompanied by a vaccinated adult.

Singapore began vaccinating children aged five to 11 on Dec 27. More than 42,000 children have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as of Friday.