Plans to ease Covid-19 rules on June 21 being relooked due to ‘major new cluster’ in Bukit Merah: Lawrence Wong

• A Covid-19 cluster at Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre grew to 25 cases on Tuesday
• The Government's Covid-19 task force is now evaluating the “timing and scope” of Singapore’s reopening
• Task force co-chair Lawrence Wong said the Government is studying the situation carefully with public health experts
• More updates will be given soon, he said
   

SINGAPORE — The multi-ministry task force handling Singapore’s response to Covid-19 is evaluating the "timing and scope" of the next stage of Singapore’s reopening, given the “major new cluster” in Bukit Merah.

In a Facebook video post on Wednesday (June 16), Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the task force, said that it was studying the situation carefully with public health experts and would provide more updates soon.

“Unfortunately, we have had a latest outbreak of cases, and we are likely to be dealing now with a very large cluster in Bukit Merah, where the cases are breaking out not only in the market and the hawker centre, but also all around the vicinity,” he said.

Mr Wong added that the number of cases with no links to other coronavirus infections in the community was likely to be rising, too.

“So, with these latest developments, we are evaluating the timeline and the scope of our second stage of opening.” 

The task force had announced last week that Covid-19 curbs could be lifted further on June 21, if the situation here remains under control. 

This includes allowing patrons to dine in at eateries again and permitting mask-off sports activities in indoor gyms and fitness studios.

In its update on Singapore’s coronavirus situation on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said that the cluster at Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre had grown to 25 cases.

As a result, the market will shut for another 11 days until June 26. 

It was earlier set to reopen on Wednesday, after three days of closure in the wake of the discovery of two cases there.

The first Covid-19 case at the market was reported last week. He is a 74-year-old Singaporean man who works at a sundry shop there.

In the Facebook post, Mr Wong acknowledged that this has been a “difficult time for everyone” and assured the public that the authorities were doing their “very best to control the infection”.

“We want to ensure that we do not have another flare-up before we reach sufficiently high levels of vaccination in our community.”

During an interview with financial news agency CNBC on Wednesday, Mr Wong was asked about the Covid-19 situation here and whether Singapore was ready to ease restrictions further. 

In response, he said that while the Government continues to monitor the situation daily, it is impossible to tell what could happen in the next few days as “there will always be surprises”.

“It’s a very tricky virus. Each time you think you have it under control, it pops up in a new direction.”

Still, he said that the Government was confident that the safeguards it has put in place to contain the latest outbreak have been working.

And that is why the country has been seeing a decline in infection rates.

“That gave us confidence to start the reopening process,” he said, although he cautioned that the authorities are not “restarting everything at once”.

Mr Wong added that movement restrictions could be eased further from August, when the Government aims to have at least half the population fully vaccinated.

“I think that will give us the confidence to ease restrictions further.” 

Mr Wong said previously that Singapore hoped to have at least 75 per cent of its population fully vaccinated by October.