In a Facebook post on Mar. 22, government agency Enterprise Singapore thanked businesses who had complied with mandatory safe distancing requirements.
Businesses rolling out safe distancing measures
The post also included pictures of shops and Singaporeans adhering to the measures, and a link to their advisory for more details on how shops can best carry out safe distancing measures.
Chan said that he was "heartened" to see that many businesses have taken the requirements seriously, putting in place crowd and queue management systems.
Noting that not all businesses have come on board, he encouraged the rest to do so and not "wilfully disregard" the advisories.
The public has a part to play
He also implored members of the public to follow instructions and to not make things difficult for the staff, and exercise social responsibility even when there's no queue management system in place.
Chan also encouraged the public to support their favourite restaurants by ordering their food to go instead of eating in.
Chan is also aware of the difficulties of implementing such measures, as there may be space or manpower constraints, along with possible loss of revenue for many establishments.
However, he recognised that these are "critical" in safeguarding public health and must be implemented.
Chan said:
"Our immediate priority right now must be to minimise the risk of local transmission and reduce the number of cases in order to not overly burden our healthcare system. All of us have a part to play in this and we must continue to stay alert and act in a responsible manner. Let us all do our part, be it as business owners or consumers, to adopt safe distancing measures and reduce the spread of COVID-19."
You can see his full post here: