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Singapore will also remove group size limit and safe distancing requirement from Tuesday as it eases COVID-19 rules; all employees may return to the workplace. After more Malaysians started ditching the use of the MySejahtera app, our neighbor seems to be following in the same direction, by limiting citizens tracking through the use of these questionable apps that are meant to curb the spread of a supposed disease. It appears that every country is on its own now, in regard to COVID policies. By these new practice directives, WHO is also seen to be having less grip across the world as the unelected, global health police.

TraceTogether and SafeEntry no longer needed for most venues from Apr 26

Source: Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: Singapore will step down the use of contact tracing measures TraceTogether and SafeEntry, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Friday (Apr 22).

The minister had announced at a COVID-19 Multi-Ministry Taskforce virtual press conference that vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS) will be eased.

From Apr 26, VDS will be removed from all settings except for events with more than 500 participants at any one time, nightlife establishments where patrons dance, and food & beverage outlets.

Authorities will also stop issuing health risk notices (HRN), he said. These were among various relaxation of measures announced by the committee.

“As we stand down VDS for various settings such as malls, supermarkets, places of worship … venue owners can deactivate their SafeEntry operations,” said Mr Ong.

“However, where VDS still applies … SafeEntry check-in will still be required to verify the vaccination and test status of the participants.”

As for restaurants, coffee shops and hawker centres, VDS applies but there will be no SafeEntry check-ins, instead there will be random checks on individuals by service staff and enforcement officers.

This is already the practice for hawker centres and coffee shops and will now extend to restaurants.

“The onus is on the patrons and customers to ensure that they are fully vaccinated before dining in F&B establishment,” he said.

“So overall, given this posture, we will see significant reduction in SafeEntry check-in points all across the island.”

He said that this will reduce costs of operation and is another “key psychological step” towards resuming normalcy.

Mr Ong also said that as HRNs will no longer be issued, COVID-19 cases need not upload their TraceTogether data from Apr 26.

“We will step down the use of TT as a contact tracing tool,” said the minister.

But he urged people to continue to keep their token or the app in their phone in case there is a need to reactivate them again.

“Given the risk over the horizon, we should not declare a ‘Freedom Day’ until the pandemic is truly over. Instead, we will step down but not dismantle our measures completely,” he said.

“By keeping certain levels of precaution we remind ourselves that the pandemic is not over and we retain the ability to reactivate selected measures if and when the situation requires.”

He said that he expects the “new posture” to last for several months, as long as the situation remains stable.