Working from home still important in Phase 2, employers should abide by Covid-19 rules to avoid shutdown: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE — Even after Singapore moves into the second phase of reopening its economy from Friday (June 19), National Development Minister Lawrence Wong warned that employers need to take safe distancing measures seriously and allow employees to work from home by default, if possible.

Mr Wong said on Monday, during a press conference held by the Covid-19 governmental task force, that working from home continues to be “an important measure” for the second phase.

“So we will still ask all employers to make... telecommuting a default setting.”

The task force also announced that dining in at restaurants, exercising at sports facilities and gyms, as well as tuition classes are among several activities that will be allowed to resume this Friday but with certain limits.

People will still have to keep a distance of 1m from each other at all times, only up to five people are allowed in any gathering, and there will be tightened capacity limits at venues such as sports facilities.

When asked how these limits can be observed on public transportation when more people will be out and about, Mr Wong acknowledged that it will be hard to do so.

He thus stressed the importance of employers “maintaining the discipline” for their employees to work from home.

“Hopefully, that will reduce the number of commuters during peak periods.”

Mr Wong added that it is also in the interest of employers to take safe distancing measures seriously to avoid business disruption.

For example, a large number of employees will be quarantined if they get infected with the coronavirus after returning to their workplaces and there are no safeguards in place.

The entire business itself could also be shut down by the authorities until the problem is rectified. 

This is not something that business owners will have to worry about if they behave responsibly, he said.

The task force co-chaired by Mr Wong and Health Minister Gan Kim Yong also announced that aside from retail stores, malls will be reopened subject to capacity limits that will be based on their sizes.

No other details were given but Mr Wong said that this is “not new” and similar measures were imposed before the circuit breaker to halt non-essential businesses started on April 7.

“The outcome then was that within many of the malls, there was enough distance and people didn't feel like there was a lot of crowding at all,” he said, though he noted that there were queues outside malls.

NOT A GOOD IDEA TO RUSH TO REOPEN

Moving forward, he said that mall operators will be required to have a proper queue management at their entrances to prevent large crowds from gathering. 

If not, the authorities will ask the malls to close. 

If mall operators are not ready to deal with the crowds, they should not rush to open as it would be “counterproductive” and pose a health risk to everyone, Mr Wong said.

The same applies for supermarkets.

Lately, supermarkets from different chains have been listed by the Ministry of Health in their daily updates as places visited by people who were carrying the coronavirus.

Apart from crowd control, supermarkets are also required to continuously monitor their capacity limits and ensure that the SafeEntry digital check-in system for contact tracing is in place.

“If there is any supermarket operator that's unable to implement these measures well... we will ask them to rectify it immediately,” he said. “If they can't rectify it, we will ask them to close.”  

TIMING OF GENERAL ELECTION

At the press briefing, a question was raised about the timing of this second phase for more activities to resume in relation to the upcoming General Election, which must be held by April 14 next year, and how it will affect campaigning.

In response, Mr Wong said that the decision to enter the second phase is based on “public health considerations” such as the ability to control the infection while allowing for the economy and the society to open up safely.

The election guidelines, precautions and safeguards are put together separately by the Elections Department (ELD) and it has already explained how the election will be organised if it is held during the pandemic. 

Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, director of medical services with the Ministry of Health (MOH), said that ELD does consult the ministry regarding prevailing public health requirements, and that these will have to be adhered to whenever an election is called. 

On June 8, ELD released a set of rules to ensure a safe election during a pandemic.

However, the guidelines concerning how political parties are able to campaign — which in the past involved physical rallies, walkabouts and house visits — will only be released closer to the date of the elections, it said.

“(How the elections will be held is) not for this task force to answer,” Mr Wong said.

“Should the elections be called, the Elections Department will certainly explain what the precautions, safeguards and campaign guidelines entail.”