Singapore starts to ease office restraints

SINGAPORE will allow more people to return to offices and trial a new business travel pass for senior executives as the city moves to re-open more of its economy amid ebbing virus cases.

Though working from home remains the default, the updated requirements allow office staff to return up to half their working time, with no more than half of such employees at the workplace at any point in time, the health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Authorities said the updated measures were “carefully considered to balance the concerns of employers regarding the impact of extended periods of workingfrom-home on productivity and workplace relations, while creating safe workplaces for employees,” it said. The updated measures will take effect from Sept. 28.

With the business passes, which will be strictly limited at first, they will be for executives with regional or international responsibilities who need to travel regularly, the ministry said. Travelers on this pass will have the option of doing a virus test instead of stayhome notice upon return to Singapore, and self-isolate until the test results are out.

These announcements come as countries worldwide grapple with how to reopen their economies and borders safely amid the pandemic. In the U.K., banks from Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. to JPMorgan Chase & Co. this week halted plans to return workers in London after the government urged people to work from home to stem a surge in virus cases.

In Singapore, the number of daily cases has dropped significantly in recent months following partial lockdown measures imposed in April. Since then, cases have been kept at low levels through mandatory mask-wearing and other social distancing measures as the economy largely re-opened in June. The country has also ramped up containment strategies, including contact-tracing and targeted testing.

Here are more details of the updated measures as well as comments from the briefing:

• Work-related events within the workplace premises like conferences, seminars and corporate retreats will also be allowed to resume, for up to 50 people

• Authorities will consider allowing the resumption

of work-related events at external venues at a later date

• Companies must not organize or encourage larger

scale social gatherings within or outside the workplace such as parties, celebrations, team bonding activities, dinner-and-dance, and gala dinners

• Employers must continue to ensure clear physical

spacing of at least one meter and demarcate safe physical distances

• Cinemas will be allowed to expand their capacities

from Oct. 1

• All religious organizations will be allowed to conduct

congregational and other worship services for up to 100 persons from Oct. 3. A pilot to increase worship limits up to 250 persons is also being considered, with more details to come

• Singapore will expand the current pilot for wedding receptions and marriage solemnizations to allow up to 100 attendees from Oct. 3

• Government is adjusting the legal cut-off age for

children to wear masks to 6 years old and above, up from the current 2 years old and above.

• Results of the community testing operations

indicate very low prevalence rates in the community: health ministry

• The end of the pandemic is still “some way” off:

health minister Gan Kim Yong

“If all goes well, if we can continue to maintain this level of compliance and we can continue to control the infection well, then we will be able to continue with this path of resuming and opening up our economy and our society,” Lawrence Wong, the education minister who is the cochairman of the virus task force, said during the briefing.

Mr. Wong said the government is working on the road map to phase three, the so-called stage where limitedsized social, cultural, religious and business gatherings or events would resume until a vaccine is developed. These plans could be shared in a few weeks, he said.

As of Wednesday, the city-state recorded 12 new infections, down from more than a thousand cases a day at the height of the outbreak. Of the more than 57,000 known cases of the virus in Singapore since the pandemic began, nearly 95% are among migrant workers living in dormitories. —