With the country seeing its COVID-19 situation stabilize further, Singapore will do away with requirements to wear masks indoors starting Aug. 29, the health minister said on Wednesday.
For the first time in more than two years, people in the Southeast Asian city-state will no longer be required to wear masks indoors except on public transport and in high-risk settings like health care facilities.
The health ministry also updated rules for non-vaccinated travelers, dropping a 7-day quarantine requirement starting next week.
Singapore, which is a major Asian financial and travel hub, lifted most pandemic curbs, including travel restrictions, earlier this year.
About 70 percent of the city-state’s 5.5 million population has already contracted COVID-19, Ong Ye Kung, the health minister said in a news conference, adding that the re-infection rate is so far “very low.”
Singapore has vaccinated more than 90 percent of its population and has among the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.