Dining in and social gathering capacity increased to 5: What you need to know about Covid-19 rules from Nov 22

1. Group sizes for dine-in increased to 5

Groups of up to five people, even if not from the same household, will be allowed to dine-in at food and beverage establishments if all are vaccinated.

Unvaccinated children aged 12 and below - born in 2009 or later - may be included within the group of five persons as long as all these children are from the same household.

As previously announced, medically ineligible persons may also be included within such groups of five people from Dec 1.

These groups of five will only be allowed to dine at hawker centres and coffee shops which are ready to start checks on full vaccination-differentiated safe management measures.

2. Social gathering group size and daily household visitors increased to 5

The permitted social gathering group size will be increased from two to five people from Nov 22.

The cap of two distinct visitors per household per day will also increase to five distinct visitors.

The authorities said that unvaccinated individuals should continue to be cautious and protect themselves by reducing their movement and staying home as much as possible.

3. Visits to hospitals and residential care homes to resume

In-person visits to hospitals and residential care homes will resume from Nov 22, with strict vaccination-differentiated safe management measures in place.

This is to minimise the risk of outbreaks which may jeopardise the lives of vulnerable patients and residents and affect the operating capacity of hospitals and homes.

The visits will only be allowed when both the hospital patient or home resident and their visitors are fully vaccinated.

Visits will also be allowed for patients, residents and visitors who are medically ineligible for vaccination.

4. Wedding couples can be unmasked throughout reception

Safe management measures for wedding solemnisations and wedding receptions will be adjusted from Nov 22 so that couples can safely include more activities in their wedding celebrations.

This includes unmasking by the wedding couple throughout the reception or solemnisation event, and singing by members of the wedding party at the reception, subject to additional precautions.

To include such activities in their event, the wedding couple and members of their wedding party will be required to undergo an antigen rapid test (ART) minimally supervised by the venue operator or have a valid pre-event test obtained within 24 hours prior to the event.

5. Vaccination required to enter public libraries

The authorities are expanding vaccination-differentiated safe management measures to more settings.

This includes all libraries under the National Library Board and selected activities in community clubs or centres under the People's Association.

This is to reduce risk of transmission in such settings.

6. More senior-centric activities

The authorities are working on the resumption of more senior-centric activities in a safe manner, drawing lessons from the resumption pilots launched so far by the People's Association and SportSG.

In the coming weeks, seniors can look forward to more active-ageing programmes such as exercise programmes offered by the Health Promotion Board and participate in other forms of learning under the National Silver Academy.

7. Support measures to be tapered

The Jobs Support Scheme support for the period of Nov 22 to Dec 19 will be reduced to 10 per cent from 25 per cent before, for the following sectors: food and beverage, retail, cinemas, museums, art galleries, historical sites, family entertainment, tourism, gyms and fitness studies, and performing arts and arts education.

Rental waivers for cooked food and market stallholders in centres managed by the National Environment Agency or its appointed operators will be decreased to half a month from one month previously.

The Covid-19 Driver Relief Fund payout for taxi and private-hire car drivers will be at $10 per vehicle per day for December 2021 and $5 in January 2022.

8. Booster doses can be taken after five months

Eligible people across all age groups will be able to receive their booster doses starting from five months after the completion of their first set of doses from Nov 24. SMS invitations will be sent to them before that.

The authorities encouraged everyone eligible for the booster vaccination to receive it when it is offered to them, so as to achieve high levels of protection.

The change comes as data shows it is evident that the waning of antibodies can clearly occur by around six months after the second dose and occur earlier for older groups.