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SINGAPORE – Although dining in groups of more than five was allowed for the first time in months, only a few did, and customers observed the safe handling measures as they did before, on the first day of Singapore’s third phase of reopening on Monday (December 28).
People in shopping malls such as Junction 8 in Bishan, The Star Vista in Buona Vista and those along Orchard Road were seen maintaining social distancing measures and logging their visits through Singapore’s SafeEntry digital registration system.
At the Ghim Moh and Toa Payoh street vendor centers, customers were ordered and concentrated in small groups to eat, despite being allowed to eat in larger groups.
Groups of up to eight can now meet socially, from a cap of five, as Singapore moved into the long-awaited third phase of its reopening on Monday, more than eight months after its breaker period meant to quell the spread of Covid. -19.
But The Straits Times noted that while not many had gathered in groups of more than five, those in groups of six, seven, or eight said they were happy to include more people at meals.
Eunoia Junior College student Joel Koh, 17, was lining up for lunch with five other friends at the Watami Japanese restaurant at Junction 8, and said he was glad everyone could eat together.
“I’m very happy because now we can include everyone. If your group of friends is more than five, we had to all separate, but now everyone can eat together,” he said.
At the Ghim Moh Market and Food Center during lunch Monday, queues formed in front of popular stalls, but everyone was seen to be keeping a safe distance from each other.
There were very few groups of more than five people, despite the adjustment of the seat markings to indicate the increase of the maximum size of the dining group to eight.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement that tables with eight seats or less will no longer have seating markings, while tables with more than eight seats will have some marked seats to ensure that dining groups have a maximum of eight people. .
“With phase three, the markings on the seats and tables in the dining areas of the street vending centers have been revised with simplicity and flexibility in mind to accommodate the increased size of the dining group from five to eight people.” said the NEA.
The agency added that the dining groups at the hawker centers will still have to stay within 1 meter of each other. When adjacent tables are less than 1m apart, some seats may be marked to maintain a safe distance.
Safe distancing ambassadors will continue to be deployed at street vendor centers to ensure compliance with safe management measures, the NEA said.
Some, like 22-year-old student Saiful Rahman, who was shopping for take out at the Ghim Moh food center, said he was looking forward to eating with larger groups, especially for dinner.
“It used to be a case where my friends and I could have dinner late at night to hang out, but the five-person limit made it difficult. My group of friends has seven people, so now we can all get together, there is no need to meet separately. “
Beyond sharing meals, some like homemaker Rokiah Kasim, 54, are also looking to be able to visit people in larger groups. Madame Rokiah, who has three brothers with their own families, said she will visit her mother this weekend.
She said: “There are not many changes for me, but this New Years holidays, more of us will visit my mother. I think she will enjoy having more people around. We have been going in smaller groups of five and we stayed with one family per visit, eight people is better because more people can participate. “
Benjamin Seah, 55, who was in Ngee Ann City on Monday, said that while he was happy that more people could get together to eat together, he had no plans to eat out in large groups as he and his family were They have become very used to ordering meals through delivery apps.
“I think Singapore has done very well, but if a second wave happens like in Korea, which I think is inevitable, we should be prepared and flexible to go back to phase two or even more.”
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