Singapore today announced that it will move back to Phase 3 (Heightened Alert) from next Monday (June 14), which will see certain restrictions relaxed including the current social gathering group size limit increased from two to five persons.

The republic went into Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) from May 16 till June 13 to mitigate the increasing number of cases in the community.

"With the frequent testing, rigorous contact tracing and expanded vaccination coverage coupled with community cases being under control, we will begin to progressively roll back Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) measures," said the co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) Gan Kim Yong at a virtual press conference today.

Gan who is also the republic's Minister for Trade and Industry said over the last few weeks the number of COVID-19 cases, both linked and unlinked, has fallen progressively in the Island-city state.

"Fewer clusters are emerging and generally smaller clusters. Our aggressive checking and testing regimes have also allowed us to detect and ring-fence potential cases much earlier... slowing down and limiting the transmission in the community," he said.

However, Gan said dining services might be allowed to resume with up to five persons per table only from June 21 as it is considered a high-risk activity "because masks are off then".

As of noon today, Singapore has preliminarily confirmed four new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection with two linked to previous cases while two cases currently unlinked.

In addition, there are nine imported cases, thus bringing the total caseload to 62,236.

At the press conference, the MTF also announced that four Antigen Rapid Test (ART) Self-Test Kit will be available at retail pharmacies for the general public from June 16, 2021.

The taskforce said these simple to use tests kit produce results in less than 20 minutes.

The ART self-test kits will complement Singapore's overall surveillance system, said the MTF.

The taskforce also recommended to individuals who have had an earlier COVID-19 infection, and have recovered, to receive a single dose of vaccine as it would further boost their immunity.

Nonetheless, the MTF said it will prioritise only those who had an earlier COVID-19 infection from over six months ago for the one-dose vaccination at this point.

Updating on Singapore's Vaccination Programme, the MTF said as of June 9, more than 4.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Around 2.5 million individuals have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, of whom about 1.9 million individuals have received their second dose and completed the full vaccination regimen.

Singapore will be extending the Vaccination Programme to its citizens aged 12 to 39 years, from June, 11 2021 onwards.

-- BERNAMA