All Nightlife Businesses to Fully Reopen From April 19

All nightlife businesses in Singapore will fully reopen to the public starting on April 19, as per a joint press release by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on April 4.

It was back on March 24 when the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) announced the easing of the safe management measures (SMMs), along with activity-specific adjustments such as the resumption of nightlife businesses like bars, pubs, nightclubs, among others, in the next couple of weeks.

All nightlife businesses are required to follow the SMMs imposed on food and beverage establishments, retail liquor establishments, and live performances, including vaccination differentiated SMMs (VDS). These include allowing groups of up to 10 fully vaccinated persons, where full VDS checks have been implemented; mask-wearing indoors, but optional outdoors; safe physical distancing of at least one metre when mask-off between individuals and groups; and capacity limits of 75% for large settings with more than 1,000 people in attendance.

For establishments like nightclubs and discotheques where dancing among others is one of the activities, a negative antigen rapid test (ART) supervised by a Ministry of Health-approved test provider will be required for those entering the premises.

“Enforcement agencies will also continue to monitor the compliance of these SMMs," the MTI and MHA said. “In the event of breaches, enforcement actions will be taken under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, and the business will be liable for the issuance of Notice of Composition (NOC) and closure order."