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The Singapore government is considering easing restrictions on dining groups and other areas by July 12, said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times today (July 1).

Specifically, Ong mentioned that the government is looking to allow bigger groups to dine together.

He also said that this is dependent on whether the Covid-19 clusters are under control.

Aside from this, Ong mentioned that the government may allow leisure travel to countries with high vaccination rates and have downward trends in infection rates by the end of 2021.

Likely destinations include the U.S., Hong Kong and parts of the European Union, reported The Straits Times.

"Once a place's (Covid-19) trajectory is downwards, vaccinations going up and you go below, say, (an infection rate of) three per 100,000, we should start looking at those countries seriously," Ong said to The Straits Times.

Stepping up efforts to vaccinate population

The health minister announced in a recent Multi-Ministry Task Force press conference that Covid-19 is expected to be endemic in Singapore, circulating and mutating like the flu.

As a result, the government is stepping up efforts to vaccinate the population, make testing more widely available, for instance through the sale of Active Rapid Test kits, and improve contact tracing capabilities.

As of June 29, the Ministry of Health has administered a total of 5,419,555 doses of Covid- 19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme to 3,316,337 individuals.

2,103,218 individuals have received their second dose and completed the full vaccination regimen.

The government is expecting to have two thirds of residents vaccinated by National Day.

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Top images: Travis Loh, @shawnanggg on Unsplash