Selected sports facilities to resume under Dual-Use Scheme on Saturday
Selected sports to resume under Dual-Use Scheme from Saturday
After an eight-month hiatus, weekend warriors like Kesavan Annamalay will finally get the opportunity to step onto a school field for a kickabout.
National agency Sport Singapore (SportSG) and the Ministry of Education yesterday announced the resumption of selected sports facilities under the Dual-Use Scheme (DUS) for the public during the year-end school holidays from Saturday to Dec 27.
Public use of all school sports facilities under the DUS, which include indoor sports halls and fields, had been suspended in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Even though we are still not allowed to play a full game of 11-a-side football (due to safe management measures), I'm still looking forward to just being back on a pitch and having drills in small groups," said Mr Annamalay, 33, who has already made a booking for one of the available fields at a school in the west.
The senior engineer added: "Overall, it's a good sign that the authorities are opening up more facilities for sport and hopefully, with everyone doing their part, we can see a full return to normal activities soon."
From Saturday, members of the public will be able to access 50 chargeable fields and 119 indoor sport halls located in 135 primary and secondary schools. Bookings can be done through the ActiveSG app.
The 169 facilities that will reopen account for less than 60 per cent of the 290 DUS facilities, which also feature free-to-play fields and saw a pre-Covid take-up rate of about 80 per cent.
Mr Sng Hock Lin, chief of ActiveSG, said the intent of reopening some facilities was to offer more spaces for the public to exercise while ensuring that the safety of players, as well as that of school students and staff, are not compromised.
"While we want to encourage everyone to continue leading an active lifestyle, we urge all to do so safely and responsibly, and to remain vigilant," he added.
For users of DUS badminton facilities, a maximum of only five people - including instructor or coach - are allowed per court, with only four players allowed on each court at any one time.
For other court-based sports - netball, volleyball, basketball and floorball - a maximum of five people per court are allowed, while a maximum of 50 people are allowed on each field, with three metres distancing between groups of five.
For football, only two groups of five are allowed on the field at any one time.
SportSG also announced yesterday that contact sports, including combat sports such as wrestling and jiu jitsu that have prolonged physical contact, can resume as long as activities are kept to a group of five.
Only transient contact was allowed previously, with rugby tackles and grappling in mixed martial arts disallowed.
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