Gyms close in Singapore to manage resurgence of COVID-19

Along with imposing a 21-day quarantine on most inbound travellers, Singapore is closing gyms and fitness centres in response to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

The news of a resurgence in COVOD-19 has the potential to impact Singapore’s efforts to launch a travel bubble with Hong Kong later this month and to host major events like the Shangri-La Dialogue in June.

As reported in the South China Morning Post, authorities explained they were closing indoor gymnasiums and indoor fitness and health studios – for the first time since the eight-week partial lockdown in 2020 – because those are “small enclosed spaces where people are frequently unmasked while exercising, and in close proximity with many other unmasked people”.

Outdoor exercise programmes and classes can continue, as long as sizes are capped at 30 and safe distancing measures are applied.

Also reported in South China Morning Post, from Friday 11.59pm, all inbound travellers except those from Australia, Brunei, mainland China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau will have to do a three-week quarantine at dedicated facilities, (with those from Fiji and Vietnam allowed to finish the last seven of the 21 days at home), joining Hong Kong which has had a strict three-week isolation requirement for most inbound travellers since last December.

Currently, travellers from India, Britain, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka are subject to a 21-day quarantine.

The size of social gatherings will be reduced from eight to five people until 30th May, while employers must limit workplaces to 50% of staff, down from the current 75%. This is a return to rules that the country last had from June to December.

The health ministry said it would reinstate these measures to “break the chain of transmission” as infection numbers grow in the city state.

Singapore Minister for Education, Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the virus task force, stressed that it was not another “circuit breaker” – which was how Singapore referred to its partial lockdown in April and June last year.

Minister Wong noted “we certainly hope not to have to invoke another circuit breaker” and added  that the latest round of “very tight” measures was a response to the latest outbreak of clusters and was meant to “snuff them out early and reduce the likelihood of having to impose more drastic measures down the road”.

Singapore’s move currently has no bearing on the travel bubble plans with Hong Kong scheduled to start on 26th May. Minister Wong reiterated that any suspension of the bubble would still hinge on whether the seven-day moving average of unlinked cases in either city exceeded five but added that authorities were monitoring the situation and would assess whether any changes were needed. As of Monday, Singapore’s seven-day moving average was 1.43.

Singapore had administered about 2.2 million COVID-19 vaccinations as of 18th April, with close to 15% of its population now being fully vaccinated.

The country is also grappling with more local cases involving mutant strains of the virus. This includes eight local cases of the B.1.351 variant first discovered in South Africa, seven of the B.1.1.7 variant first found in Britain, three with the P1 variant first found in Brazil, three with the B.1.617.1 variant first found in India, and one with the B.1.525 variant also discovered in the UK.

There were also seven with the B.1.617.2 variant first found in India in three clusters, although the health ministry stressed that the viruses in each cluster were distinct and not linked to one another.

Image courtesy of Fitness First Singapore