• Up to five people from the same household may dine out together from Nov 10
• This revised rule will not yet apply to hawker centres and coffee shops
• For vaccinated individuals from different households, the group size will remain capped at two
• The announcement was made after a stabilisation of daily Covid-19 case numbers

SINGAPORE — Starting Wednesday (Nov 10), fully vaccinated persons from the same household can eat together in groups of up to five at food and beverage (F&B) establishments that are able to implement vaccine-related protocols.

Announcing this in a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the arrangement will not apply to hawker centres and coffee shops because they are “unable to conduct comprehensive (vaccination) checks of all their diners”.

For vaccinated individuals from different households, the group size for dining at F&B outlets will remain capped at two.

This decision was made after a stabilisation of daily Covid-19 case numbers, with the week-on-week ratio of community cases having dropped and now hovering around 0.8 to 1.0, MOH said. This means that the number of cases is declining from week to week.

The authorities said last month that they were looking to allow groups of up to five for each household to dine out if the weekly infection growth rate dropped below 1.0, and if the situation at hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) remains stable.

For now, the two-person cap on social gatherings and visits to households will stay. 

MOH said on Monday that there will also be easing of infection control measures from Nov 10 in several workplace and business settings, such as allowing F&B establishments to play soft recorded music.

Although families will be able to dine out in groups of up to five, they should still continue to exercise care and restraint when doing so, especially if the household comprises older family members.

Those who are certified medically ineligible for all Covid-19 vaccines will be exempted from the vaccinated differentiated measures from Dec 1 onwards, and can thus dine-in with vaccinated family members, among other activities.

MOH said that such individuals can visit any general practitioner clinic, or public or private healthcare institution from Nov 15 to be certified as medically ineligible.

And even though the arrangement is not extended to coffee shops or hawker centres, MOH is prepared to extend the same concession to these establishments once they have put in place added control measures.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) and Singapore Food Agency (SFA) will be engaging the hawkers’ associations and coffee-shop operators respectively on enhancing these control measures and updates will be provided when ready.

MOH added that strict enforcement action will be taken against people who breach the rules by pretending to be from the same household, and for F&B outlets that do not conduct the necessary checks.

For instance, errant individuals will be fined and F&B outlets will be subject to immediate closures.

“These penalties will apply even for first-time offenders,” MOH said.

There will also be several adjustments to existing safety regulations from Wednesday in order to “better facilitate operations for businesses and workplaces”, MOH said.

For example, F&B establishments will be allowed to play soft recorded music from Wednesday, but live music and entertainment continue to be banned.

Other measures include:

• An increase in zone sizes for various event categories such as congregational worship and live performances from 50 to 100, and at least a 2m separation between each zone, down from the current 3m
• Unmasking will be allowed at work-related events, live performances and congregational worship for up to 10 people when engaged in public speaking, so long as the speaker maintains a safe distance of 2m from the audience when unmasked
• For sports activities, there should be at least 2m safe distancing between individuals for indoors high-intensity or high-movement exercise classes, down from the current 3m

DAILY CASE NUMBERS REMAIN STABLE

Aside from the week-on-week ratio of community cases hovering around 0.8 to 1.0, MOH said that close to 99 per cent of cases continue to have mild or no symptoms and the vast majority are able to recover well at home.

This is despite the number of daily cases remaining at more than 3,000 a day on average.

In the past 28 days, the proportion of patients who require oxygen support has also held steady at 0.8 per cent of total cases here, and those who require intensive care, at 0.3 per cent.

The number of cases in ICUs remains high but stable at around 140 cases, and they occupy 70 per cent of current ICU bed capacity.

“We have been actively expanding the capacity of Covid-19 treatment facilities and community isolation facilities over the past few weeks to take in Covid-19 patients who do not require acute care in hospitals,” MOH said.