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Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong announced the easing of Covid-19 measures in his nation-wide address on Mar. 24, 2022.

How did people in Singapore respond to the news?

Mileu Insight, a consumer insight and analytics company, conducted a poll asking Singaporeans and residents about their opinions in response to the new measures in PM Lee's announcement.

1,010 individuals aged 16 and above responded to the poll, which was conducted on Mar. 24, of which majority, or 77 per cent, regarded the eased Covid-19 measures as either "somewhat good news" or "very good news".

The poll also recorded the strongest positive emotions compared to five previous safe management polls.

The strongest emotions were:

• 38 per cent happiness
• 35 per cent optimistic
• 34 per cent hopefulness
• 33 per cent relieved
• 32 per cent satisfaction

Nearly all of the respondents were accepting of the revised Covid-19 measures, although nine per cent reported that it was "somewhat strict" or "too strict".

Response to individual measures

Out of the slew of updated Covid-19 measures, individuals were the most supportive of the revised dine-in and household visitation measures, where up to 10 vaccinated individuals are now allowed to to dine out together or visit a household.

This was supported by 75 per cent and 72 per cent of the participants respectively.

However, pollers were a little more divided when it came to the mask mandate, and slightly more than half, or 52 per cent of the participants were supportive of making mask wearing optional outdoors.

Most of the support came from the older respondents, where 61 per cent those aged 45-54 supported optional mask wearing.

Here are the statistics to the other revised Covid-19 measures:

• 35 per cent were supportive of allowing the sale and consumption of alcohol past 10:30pm
• 45 per cent were supportive of the resumption of live performances at all venues
• 43 per cent were supportive of allowing up to 75 per cent of employees who can work from home to return to their workplace

Respondents' outlook on the future

The activity that respondents were looking forward to doing more of in 2022 was dining-out with friends, family or colleagues, which topped the list at 66 per cent.

This was followed closely by travelling for fun and/or leisure (65 per cent), social gatherings at houses with family (49 per cent) and then social gatherings at houses with friends (48 per cent).

YouGov survey results

Separately, YouGov conducted a similar survey that asked 1,048 Singaporeans how they felt in response to the measures announced and the measures that respondents were most looking forward to.

These results were similar to the ones reported by the Mileu Insight poll, where 75 per cent of the respondents said they were most looking forward to the increase in group sizes.

In this regard, respondents aged above 55 were significantly more likely to say that they are looking forward to the increased group sizes, where 81 per cent of them expressed their anticipation.

Singaporean respondents between 18 to 34 look forward to resumption of live music and lifting of alcohol ban

As much as 51 percent of younger respondents between the ages of 18 to 24, on the other hand, reported that they were most looking forward to the resumption of live music and live broadcast screening at food and beverage outlets.

Additionally, 38 per cent of respondents aged between 25 to 34 said they were looking forward to drinking alcohol past 10:30pm.

More respondents from YouGov looking forward to optional mask wearing outdoors

Converse to Mileu Insight's poll, more YouGov respondents said they were looking forward to mask wearing becoming optional in outdoor settings, and 63 per cent were anticipating the relaxed mask mandate.

Both polls reveal positive response to relaxed Covid-19 measures

On the whole, however, both polls revealed that many in Singapore have responded positively to the eased Covid-19 measures that PM Lee and the Multi-ministry Taskforce announced on Mar. 24.

From the YouGov survey, 38 per cent of the Singaporeans said they were happy about the eased Covid-19 measures, and 31 per cent said they were relieved, while 29 per cent said they were concerned.

Announcements that were made on Mar. 24

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Top image by @sgxp from Unsplash