Packed CBD eateries, trains on first day of major easing of curbs

More workers return to business district, but numbers not yet back to pre-pandemic levels

- Kok Yufeng and Melissa Heng

The Central Business District (CBD) regained a semblance of normalcy yesterday, with the cap on workers allowed to return to the workplace now lifted following a major relaxation of Covid-19 rules.

While it was not quite business as usual, commuters and office workers told The Straits Times it felt like things are getting back to how they were two years ago.

Gone are the lines of people waiting outside office buildings and malls to do SafeEntry check-ins.

Instead, there were the familiar long queues at coffee shops where workers got their morning brews.

Trains on the North-South and Downtown lines, which ran at two-minute intervals during the morning peak, were crowded.

But commuters were not packed shoulder to shoulder like they were before the pandemic.

The cap on the number of workers allowed to return to the workplace at the same time was lifted after Singapore moved its disease outbreak response one level down, from orange to yellow. The limit was previously set at 75 per cent.

Administrative worker Irene Lim, 58, said she thought it was great that more people were back in the office. She goes in to her workplace about thrice a week.

“We've been working from home for a while so it is nice to go in and meet my colleagues,” she said.