Team sports for up to 10 people to resume
Only at selected places for now; participants must be fully vaxxed & undergo ART
Team sports for up to 10 fully vaccinated persons - including players and officials - can resume from tomorrow at suitable ActiveSG sports centres and People's Association community clubs, the multi-ministry task force (MTF) handling the pandemic announced yesterday.
All participants must be fully vaccinated and will be required to produce a valid negative pre-activity Antigen Rapid Test (ART) result on-site before the activity.
Team sports that are set to resume with these new measures include five-a-side football and basketball, while others like hockey and netball had previously adapted team sizes to fit the prevailing rules.
More details will be provided by Sport Singapore.
The pilot is part of the MTF's easing of safe management measures (SMMs) in settings that allow for vaccination-differentiated SMMs (VDS) and pre-activity testing.
The use of VDS and ART will also be piloted at selected mass sporting events and selected meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.
The latest easing of restrictions follows a previous announcement that current measures may be eased before the Stabilisation Phase ends on Nov 21 if Singapore's weekly infection growth rate (the ratio of community cases in the past week, over the week before) falls below one, and the hospital and intensive care unit situation remains stable.
The ratio was 0.81 as at Sunday, said Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong during yesterday's press conference.
Recreational futsal player Idi Bakhtiar, 41, was surprised by the news but is also looking forward to resuming five-a-side football since stopping in May.
Before the pandemic, Idi played once a month with up to 16 people.
He said: "With the previous restrictions, it was really difficult to play a game and it didn't make sense to book a pitch with only a handful of players.
"Football being a team sport means the more the merrier in my opinion. For recreational players like us, these sessions are our meet-ups. It doesn't feel the same when it's 2v2 or 3v3. Yes, it's still a game of football but the essence of camaraderie isn't there.
"I hope that the country continues opening up and I also hope that players will be responsible, so that the transition to a norm won't be halted by another restriction."
Cheong En Shuo, who usually plays basketball once a week, admitted that he had stopped playing recently as "it's not as fun playing in uneven groups" and welcomed the return of a full-court game.
"I enjoy the competitiveness and bonding between my friends and me while we are playing, and it's quite a good time to not only catch up with them, but also to relieve stress as well," said the public servant, 27.
"Hopefully, the measures stay the same for as long as possible."
Netball player Valerie Wong was excited and pleased with the news as her club Xtrix had stopped training sessions since the end of July. Although players still cannot resume a full seven-a-side netball game, Wong said five-a-side is a decent substitute and she has missed playing the sport.
Wong, 24, who works for an apparel company, said: "It's better than no games at all and that's the usual number we have for street netball anyway. With 5v5, there's a wider range of game set-ups you can do.
"I hope this means we can resume our netball leagues and have a semblance of what life was like before the restrictions.
"It would probably help bring back the friendly competitive environment that has been kind of missing these past two years."
Under the revised SMMs, safe distancing for indoor high intensity sports and exercise classes and activities will be reduced from 3m to 2m for individuals and groups.
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