Except for key economic sectors and essential services, all other work premises will close
di Danson Cheong
Most workplaces will be closed from next Tuesday (April 7) and all schools will move to full home-based learning a day later, as Singapore puts in place a "circuit breaker" to pre-empt escalating coronavirus infections, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Except for key economic sectors and essential services - such as food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and key banking services - all other work premises will close, said PM Lee on Friday in an address to the nation on the Covid-19 situation.
All schools and institutes of higher learning will close and move to full home-based learning from next Wednesday, after schools piloted one day of home-based learning this week.
Pre-school and student care services will also be closed, but would provide "limited services for children of parents who have to continue working", he said.
Explaining why the Government decided to take such a step, the Prime Minister said Singapore has routinely seen more than 50 new cases daily over the past two weeks, despite best efforts of the authorities to curb the outbreak.
"Initially, many of the new cases were imported from overseas, mostly returning Singaporeans. Then last week, we began to have more local cases. Furthermore, despite our good contact tracing, for nearly half of these cases, we do not know where or from whom the person caught the virus," he said.
"This suggests that there are more people out there who are infected, but who have not been identified. And they may be passing the virus unknowingly to others," he said.
While the situation remains under control, the Government has decided to "make a decisive move now, to pre-empt escalating infections", said PM Lee.
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