Singapore eyes mid-July easing, leisure travel by year-end

Singapore is slated to announce a further easing of Covid-19 restrictions in mid-July as part of a strategy for reopening the economy that may also include the long-awaited return of leisure travel by the end of the year, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told the Straits Times.

With virus clusters in the community coming under control, Ong told the newspaper that the government was looking at raising the number of people allowed to dine together in restaurants from two come July 12, while exploring "other openings” as well. Afterward, the city-state will look to other milestones pegged to vaccination progress for further reopening: the first likely in the second half of July, when more than 50% of the population is fully vaccinated. And then, when Singapore hits the two-thirds mark around its National Day on Aug. 9.