SINGAPORE — Patients who require medical attention from doctors, dentists and registered Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners, as well as caregivers who need to drop off or pick up children from preschools and childcare centres, will be exempted from the new rules disallowing people who are not immunised against Covid-19 from entering malls. 

These are among the exceptions to the vaccine-related controls that will kick in on Wednesday, as laid out by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and trade agency Enterprise Singapore (ESG) in a joint statement late on Tuesday (Oct 12).

Unvaccinated individuals seeking medical attention would need to show proof of an appointment such as a letter, email, a message from a short message service (SMS) or appointment card, in order to enter the mall or shop.

Unvaccinated caregivers would need to present a letter of support from the preschool or childcare centre to gain entry. 

From Wednesday, people who are not vaccinated will not be allowed to enter malls, large standalone stores, attractions, hawker centres and coffee shops as part of the new restrictions put in place to protect them and reduce the strain on the healthcare system.

But some exceptions will be made for unvaccinated people who need certain services that are located in malls and large standalone stores such as furniture shop Ikea and sports store Decathlon. 

Besides those seeking medical help and caregivers, children aged 12 and under will also be exempted from the new rules, as well as unvaccinated individuals who have recovered from Covid-19.

They would have to show proof that they recovered from the disease either through their TraceTogether mobile application or token, a valid discharge memo, or an exemption notice from the Ministry of Health accompanied by their government-issued photo identification card.

Unvaccinated people who have a negative pre-event test result will also be allowed to enter these premises for the duration of the activity or service they require.

A week-long grace period from Oct 13 to 19 will be granted for malls to enforce these infection control measures.

During this period, operators are required to perform checks on individuals entering their premises and unvaccinated people can enter with a reminder of the rules. 

TODAY reported that some businesses in malls were thinking of how they can continue serving their unvaccinated customers and were waiting for the authorities to say what provisions will be made to allow these clients to enter malls for their services.

Separately, MTI and ESG said that unvaccinated people who work in malls will be allowed to continue to enter their workplaces since they are already required to take a Covid-19 test twice a week.

“Such workers will continue to have access to their workplaces, pending a further review of the policy,” they said.

“The Government strongly encourages all unvaccinated workers who are medically eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”