Lee Hsien Loong, prime minister of Singapore, decreed last week that businesses, schools and other enterprises in the city-state will remain in a state of lockdown until June 1 as part of “circuit breaker” measures related to Covid-19.
He advised residents to leave their homes “only for essential needs,” like food. According to the Straits Times, Lee’s comments came on April 21, after more than 2,500 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed over a two-day period.
“Remember: it is not just about adhering to the letter of the law,” he said. “The spirit of the guidelines is to reduce movement to a minimum, and to avoid being out and about in the community. This is the way to protect yourself, your family and everyone else.”
He acknowledged the “short-term pain” caused by the quarantine and the shutdown of business, but reminded residents thee goals is to “stamp out the virus, protect the health and safety of our loved ones, and allow us to revive our economy.”
In a later press conference, Singapore’s National Development Minister, Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai, said the government would “close more workplaces and tighten the list of essential services that are permitted” to operate. “We will do this by making cuts across all sectors of the economy but also on businesses that are consumer facing, including food and beverage and other services.”
Wong added: “We will continue with the circuit breaker for another four weeks, until June 1st. Depending on how the situation evolves, we will adjust the measures and if there are clear improvements in our community transmission numbers—for example community numbers coming down to single digits—then we can consider gradually easing some of these measures.”
Singapore is home of two massive casino resorts: Marina Bay Sands, run by a unit of the U.S.-based Las Vegas Sands Corp., and Resorts World Sentosa, run by Genting Singapore Ltd. On April 6, the Ministry of Health had said in a written announcement that the two casino sites were to be closed for a period of four weeks, from April 7 to May 4 inclusive, as the government stepped up its efforts to contain the further spread of the Covid-19 disease in Singapore.
Lee said on Tuesday that it appeared from the new cases in the country there was a remaining “reservoir” of Covid-19 infection. The city’s political leader said that to exit from the circuit breaker, Singapore needed “to do three things”:
“First, we must open up incrementally, in small steps, making sure that we are safe each step of the way … Second, we need to scale up testing for Covid-19, substantially … Third, we will need to make full use of information technology so that when we discover Covid-19 cases, we can trace much more efficiently where they have been and whom they have been in contact with,” said Lee.
A total of 9,125 people in Singapore have been confirmed to have the coronavirus infection.
