Singapore tackles second-wave cases

Breaches in defense efforts pose challenge for city state

Singaporean Bill Ho said he made the toughest decision of his life on April 6-closing the restaurant he had run for 12 years as the novel coronavirus outbreak escalated in the city state.

Located near the island nation's bustling Chinatown, 8 Cafe& Bar had taken a significant hit from the contagion, with the number of diners falling sharply.

Three days before Ho closed the business, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave a televised speech, announcing significantly stricter measures to guard against infections.

Noting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases each day, as well as local transmissions and clusters, Lee said the measures would act as a "circuit breaker "and would be in place for one month to help reduce the risk of large numbers of cases, as well as gradually reducing new infections.

Meanwhile, Singapore's Ministry of Health said all restaurants, hawker centers, coffee shops, food courts and other food and beverage outlets would only open for takeout orders and deliveries.

However, Ho said it was almost impossible for his restaurant to cater to takeout orders.

"It mainly served fusion cuisine, homemade coffee and cocktails. I made nearly all the dishes and drinks. My guests liked to dine in, drink and chat in my restaurant. Since the outbreak emerged, we had seen fewer guests, and in the end, we were serving only two or three tables a day, which is why I decided to close."

The city's diverse restaurants and hawker centers are popular among locals, as they are conveniently located in neighborhoods and provide different types of food.

They are ideal places to socialize with family, friends and neighbors, with many people taking time to linger over a cup of coffee or a meal. Last year, Singapore launched a bid to have its hawker culture inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The government's call for people to stay home has dispersed the crowds that normally throng Bukit Pasoh Road, the location of Ho's restaurant. Although it was dinner time during a recent visit, the number of people in the area was significantly lower than usual.

The stricter measures announced in Singapore require all students to undertake home-based learning and for workplaces to remain shuttered until May 4.

The government has also banned public and private social gatherings of any size, with residents who breach the regulation liable to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to the equivalent of $7,000.

Singapore, which has a population of about 6 million, was one of the first countries to report COVID-19 infections. It recorded its first case on Jan 23, when a 66-year-old man who traveled to the city from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province, tested positive.

The number of confirmed cases rose quickly after this, and the country became one of the world's first major hotspots for the disease until mid-February, when the number of patients who recovered surpassed new infections.