It’s been 2 days since the circuit breaker measures kicked in and you can see the effect on Singapore immediately.
But not everyone is willing to obey the measures, and ten shops were caught for flouting the rules.
10 Shops That Are Non-Essential Caught Opening & Told to Cease Operations Immediately
On 8 Apr 2020, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) released a joint statement.
They said that they’ve caught ten shops providing “non-essential” services even during the circuit breaker period.
They include “TCM retail establishments, stores selling wellness and beauty products, money changers, mobile phone retail shops, consumer electronics retailers, as well as kitchenware and stationery stores.”
For this time, they’ve only issued verbal warnings but if the shops continue to bullishly breach the measures, they’ll be fined and have their operations suspended.
STB & ESG Aggressively Conducting Checks
Within a day, STB and ESG conducted checks at 10,700 businesses across Singapore.
STB inspected more than 970 tourism-related establishments while ESSG checked on over 9,750 F&B and retail outlets in 67 shopping malls.
Over 200 safe distancing ambassadors and staff members were deployed for the operation.
In other words, during this period, don’t do anything because you’ll definitely get caught.
Both boards promise to step up checks during the entire circuit breaker period which will last until 4 May…if we’re lucky.
And you can be sure that the government will step up enforcement against people who breach the rules.
Because they want the Covid-19 outbreak to stabilise as well so that they can hold the General Elections soon, which political observers guessed could happen in June 2020.
It’s Not Just About Forcing Shops To Close
By the way, they’re not just checking whether non-essential businesses has suspended their operations until the circuit breaker measures are lifted.
They’re checking businesses who are currently allowed to operate as well.
They’ve found “common infractions” like poor crowd management, no stickers on the ground to indicate safe distancing and more.
“We take a serious view of any infringement of safe distancing measures and will not hesitate to take actions against non-compliant businesses.”
In the words of PCK, don’t pray pray hor.
For those who are not sure what businesses are considered as essential services, you can check out their website here.
You can do your part as a responsible citizen through helping out in contact tracing by downloading the TraceTogether app.
In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website here and registering for the Gov.sg’s WhatsApp service here.
