Singaporeans could wine and dine at restaurants, work out at the gym and socialize with no more than five people at a time as of yesterday, as the city-state removed most of its COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions.
The latest relaxation came as reopenings in many places around the world are touching off fresh spikes in infections, raising questions about how to live with the coronavirus without causing unnecessary deaths or economic catastrophe.
Getting back to business in Singapore came as China declared a fresh outbreak in Beijing under control after confirming 25 new cases among about 360,000 people tested.
Photo: EPA-EFE
That was up by just four from a day earlier.
A Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention official said that the number of cases was soon expected to fall in an outbreak centered on Beijing’s main wholesale market.
Beijing has confirmed 183 new cases over the past week.
Singapore’s malls, gyms, massage parlors, parks and other public facilities reopened their doors with strict social distancing and other precautions.
After at first appearing to have been a model for containing the coronavirus, the city-state of 5.8 million has one of the highest infection rates in Asia with 41,473 cases, mostly linked to foreign workers’ dormitories.
Authorities say such cases have declined, with no new large clusters and a stable number of other cases, despite a partial economic reopening two weeks ago.
Gym trainer Wee Cheng Yan said that it felt good to return to work after two months at home.
“Definitely, interaction has been lacking the past few months,” he said. “Watching a lot of TV. Doing a bit of resistance band training, which is not as effective as working out in the gym.”
Gym members must make appointments and are limited to only two hours a day.
The steam rooms remain shut and clients must wear masks.
Contact sports, concerts, trade fairs, singing lessons and mass religious meetings are still banned, and entertainment venues, such as cinemas and bars, remain closed.
The pandemic is waxing and waning in many places, with numbers of cases soaring in Indonesia, India, Brazil and Mexico, but appearing to be under control or contained in Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and New Zealand.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi yesterday said that Japan and Vietnam have agreed to partially lift travel bans and ease restrictions step by step under the understanding that both nations have their outbreaks largely under control.
Vietnam is among four nations that Japan is discussing resuming mutual visits in phases. It is seeking similar arrangements with Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, India yesterday recorded 13,586 new cases, raising its total to 380,532.
Despite that, shops, malls, factories and places of worship have been allowed to reopen, while schools and cinemas remain closed.
Infections surged in rural areas after hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left cities after losing their jobs in a lockdown announced in late March. Previous precautions are now restricted to high-risk “containment” zones.
In South Korea, outbreaks have inspired second-guessing on whether officials were too quick to ease social distancing measures in April after a first wave of infections waned.
Officials yesterday reported 49 cases of COVID-19 as the virus continues to spread in the densely populated capital, Seoul, where half of its 51 million people live.
About 30 to 50 new cases have been confirmed in the nation per day since late last month.
The coronavirus has infected more than 8.4 million people worldwide and killed more than 453,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The actual number is thought to be much higher because many cases are asymptomatic or go untested.
In the US, which has the most cases at nearly 2.2 million, states have been pushing ahead with reopenings from full or partial shutdowns, despite surges in cases in many places, including Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and California.
New cases skyrocketed on Thursday in Oklahoma by 450, double the record-setting number reported two days earlier.
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