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Work-from-home default from 27 Sep-24 Oct: MTF

A Covid-19 coronavirus contact tracing sign is pictured as people walk out during lunch break at the Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on September 14, 2021. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A COVID-19 coronavirus contact tracing sign is pictured as people walk out during lunch break at Raffles Place on 14 September 2021. (PHOTO:AFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — Work-from-home will be the default for employees who can work from home from 27 September to 24 October, the multi-ministry taskforce said on Friday (24 September).

During this period, the 10-day snap Work from Home regime will be suspended. Currently, up to 50 per cent of work-from-home employees are allowed to return to their workplace.

“There should continue to be no cross-deployment of workers to multiple worksites for those who need to go into worksites to work. Social gatherings at the workplace will continue to be disallowed,” the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement.

Employers should continue to implement flexible working hours and stagger the start times of employees who return to the workplace.

"Those who are able to work-from-home, but from time to time, you may need to return to the office for ad hoc reasons, we will also encourage you to do a self-test and to test negative before you go back to the office," said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong at Friday's virtual media conference by the multi-ministry COVID-19 taskforce.

Meanwhile, the Home-Based Learning (HBL) period will be extended by one day until 7 October.

Previously, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that HBL will be implemented for all Primary and Special Education (SPED) schools from 27 September through 6 October in order to better protect younger children who are not yet medically eligible for vaccination.

Primary 6 students will go on a study break prior to the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) from 25 September through 29 September.

“As an added precaution, the HBL period will now be extended till 7 October 2021, so that students can continue to stay home for the rest of the week,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Event sizes

The event sizes and capacity limits for congregational and other worship services, cinemas, MICE, live performances, spectator sport events will remain at up to 1,000 attendees if all are fully vaccinated. Otherwise, only up to 50 attendees will be allowed without pre-event testing (PET).

The concession for children aged 12 years and below, who cannot yet be vaccinated, will apply for these events. Such children may be included in a group of up to two persons if the child is from the same household.

Marriage solemnisations may continue, seated in groups of up to two persons, if all are fully vaccinated. Home solemnisations will continue to be allowed with up to 10 attendees. Otherwise, only up to 50 attendees will be allowed without PET.

“We acknowledge that wedding couples have faced significant uncertainties over the past few months. Hence, as a special concession, wedding receptions may be allowed to continue with up to 250 attendees if all are fully vaccinated, and with a group size of up to 5 persons per table,” MOH said.

All wedding guests must abide by the safe management measures. Given their higher vulnerability, unvaccinated individuals and the elderly are discouraged from attending such events, as PET only reduces their risk to others but not the risk to themselves, MOH added.

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