Trade minister Chan Chun Sing said Monday that Singapore expects to reopen most, if not all, of its economy back on track by June.
In early April, Singapore implemented restrictions to curb the spread of the outbreak. And temporarily closed schools, asking most offices to turn to remote work. Those steps are expected to be relaxed in three stages beginning Tuesday. Now, Singapore starts to reopen all, including its economy.
“We ‘re going to get 80 per cent of our economy back on track through step one. Then the last remaining big sectors will be retail and F&B (food and beverage), which we hope will reopen by the end of June, “Chan told CNBC‘s”
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the city-state has one of the largest number of coronavirus cases in Asia. With more than 34,800 people infected to date. Most cases have relations with dormitory infection clusters that house foreign workers performing labour-intensive construction jobs.
In the first step several workers will need to return to work. While businesses still have to work from home whenever possible. Schools will also reopen though some days students will have to study from home.
Chan said the government has collaborated with businesses and employees to put in place the requisite steps for the work environment, transport and social distancing to “open safely, and most importantly, to open sustainably.”
In the first phase, Singapore will track the results of increased activity. If the levels of community infection stay small in the following weeks. it will move on to the second phase. Chan said, the transmission of the virus through communities has stabilized in recent weeks. But it would take more time for Singapore to clear up all the cases, including asymptomatic ones, through the worker dormitories.
Singapore was one of the earliest countries outside of China to report cases and the infection was initially seen to have been contained. However, major outbreaks in the packed dormitories led to a spike in cases of infection which prompted concerns about foreign workers’ living conditions.
