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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation at 11am today (Mar. 24) to give an update on the Covid-19 situation in Singapore and upcoming changes to Safe Management Measures.

Relaxing measures in a "measured approach"

In his address, PM Lee announced that the slew of Covid-19 measures will be eased now that the "Omicron situation is well under control".

However, he added that the the government will be treading with caution.

"We remain watchful, because Covid-19 may yet bring further surprises," PM Lee said.

He said the government will be maintaining its "measured approach", which he said has "served us well over the past two years" instead of relaxing all restrictions at once.

Countries that have declared that the pandemic is over and relaxed all restrictions at once are now experiencing rising infection and mortality numbers, PM Lee noted.

After announcing the changes in Covid-19 measures such as no more compulsory mask-wearing in outdoor setting and allowing bigger group size for social gathering in his speech, PM Lee also cautioned that the government may tighten measures again if Covid-19 situation worsens again.

"After this major step, we will wait a while to let the situation stabilise," said PM Lee, who added that Singapore's Covid-19 measures will be eased up further, "if all goes well".

May need to backtrack and tighten restrictions again

However, PM Lee urged Singaporeans to be "psychologically prepared for more twists and turns ahead" as with more interactions, there may be another wave of cases.

He added that "Omicron will not be the last variant we encounter" as the variant will continue to evolve.

"Hopefully new variants will become progressively milder and more flu-like," PM Lee said.

In the event of encountering "more aggressive and dangerous mutants" in the future, like the Delta variant, PM Lee said the government may have to "backtrack and tighten up our restrictions again".

"We cannot rule this out, even though we hope it will not be necessary," PM Lee added.

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Top image from National Environment Agency/Facebook