Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Chan Chun Sing states that Singapore is set to reopen most of its economy in June. Singapore had introduced the circuit breaker measures in early April to ease the spread of the pandemic, these measures are to be eased in three phases starting from 2 June.
He confirms that by phase one, 80% of the economy would be back on track, with the remaining retail and F&B sectors set to reopen in end of June.
Businesses are told to work from home unless necessary, however schools will be reopening and students will continue to engage in home-based learning on some days.
Singapore has one of the highest number of cases in Asia with more than 34,800 infected thus far. Most of these cases are associated with the foreign worker dormitory clusters. The Government will be closely monitoring the numbers in phase one and will only move on to phase two if the numbers remain low.
Mr Chan said that the community spread of the virus has been more or less stabilised, however it will take longer to identify all the cases in the foreign worker dormitory including asymptomatic cases.
Most countries who have somewhat contained the virus, are now concerned about the possibility of a second wave of transmission, like the situation in South Korea. The Singapore government will not hesitate to close down sectors should a new infection cluster form.