COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Religious Gatherings — Control Order) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2021

No. S 589

COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020

(ACT 14 OF 2020)

COVID-19 (Temporary Measures)
(Religious Gatherings — Control Order)
(Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2021

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 34(1) of the COVID‑19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, the Minister for Health makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations are the COVID‑19 (Temporary Measures) (Religious Gatherings — Control Order) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2021 and come into operation on 10 August 2021.

Amendment of regulation 3

2. Regulation 3 of the COVID‑19 (Temporary Measures) (Religious Gatherings — Control Order) Regulations 2021 (G.N. No. S 509/2021) (called in these Regulations the principal Regulations) is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately before the definition of “building” in paragraph (1), the following definition:

“ “approved test” has the meaning given by the Infectious Diseases (Mass Gathering Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019) Regulations 2021 (G.N. No. S 273/2021);”;

(b)

by deleting “2” in the definition of “religious gathering for congregational worship” in paragraph (1) and substituting “5”;

(c)

by inserting, immediately after the words “such as” in paragraph (a)(ii) of the definition of “volunteer” in paragraph (1), the words “singing or”; and

(d)

by inserting, immediately after paragraph (3), the following paragraph:

“(4) For the purposes of these Regulations, an individual is treated as undergoing or having undergone an approved test in the same manner as under the Infectious Diseases (Mass Gathering Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019) Regulations 2021.”.

Amendment of regulation 4

3. Regulation 4 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “gathering of 2” in paragraph (a) and substituting the words “cohort of 5 or fewer”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “another gathering” in paragraph (a)(ii) and substituting the words “another cohort”.

Amendment of regulation 5

4. Regulation 5 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)	by deleting “100” in paragraph (1)(a) and substituting “500”; and
(b)	by deleting “2” in paragraph (3)(a) and substituting “5”.

Amendment of regulation 8

5. Regulation 8 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by deleting the words “whom the occupier of the venue knows or has reason to believe” in paragraph (1)(b);

(b)

by inserting, immediately before the word “is” in paragraph (1)(b)(i) and (ii), the words “whom the occupier of the venue knows or has reason to believe”;

(c)

by deleting the word “refuses” in paragraph (1)(b)(iii) and (iv) and substituting in each case the words “who refuses”; and

(d)

by deleting paragraph (2) and substituting the following paragraphs:

“(2) The enhanced entry controls with respect to a venue where a religious gathering takes place, or is to take place, means a requirement to establish and maintain, during the crowd management period of the religious gathering, all reasonably practicable procedures and protocols that ensure that only the following enter or remain within the venue during that crowd management period:

(a)	a worshipper with a cleared status;
(b)	a worshipper who is an uncleared junior, unless there are also present, in the venue during that crowd management period, other worshippers who are uncleared juniors which are not below the maximum permissible number of uncleared juniors for the venue during that crowd management period.

(3) The maximum permissible number of uncleared juniors for a venue during the crowd management period of the religious gathering taking place in that venue is 20% of the total number of worshippers present or who may be present within the venue during that crowd management period, rounded down to the nearest whole number.”.

Amendment of regulation 13

6. Regulation 13 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)	by deleting “100” in paragraph (2)(a)(i) and (b)(i) and substituting in each case “500”; and
(b)	by deleting paragraph (3).

Amendment of regulation 14

7. Regulation 14(2) of the principal Regulations is amended by inserting, immediately after the words “authorised under” in sub‑paragraph (a), the words “regulation 22, 25 or 31 or”.

Amendment of regulation 15

8. Regulation 15(1) of the principal Regulations is amended by deleting sub‑paragraph (c) and substituting the following sub‑paragraph:

“(c)

to ensure that every worshipper in the worshippers’ area of the venue is at all times alone, or in a cohort that consists of —

(i)	5 or fewer worshippers each with a cleared status;
(ii)	5 or fewer worshippers who are uncleared juniors all from the same household; or
(iii)	5 or fewer worshippers in total, consisting of one or more uncleared juniors (all from the same household) and other worshippers with a cleared status.”.

Amendment of regulation 18

9. Regulation 18 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after the words “authorised under” in paragraph (2)(a), the words “these Regulations or”; and

(b)

by inserting, immediately after paragraph (2), the following paragraph:

“(3) However, this regulation is subject to Part 4 in the case of a religious gathering that involves any live performance or public speaking by a religious worker or a volunteer at the venue where the religious gathering takes place.”.

Amendment of regulation 19

10. Regulation 19(2) of the principal Regulations is amended by inserting, immediately after the words “authorised under” in sub‑paragraph (a), the words “these Regulations or”.

Deletion and substitution of heading of Division 1 of Part 4

11. Part 4 of the principal Regulations is amended by deleting the heading of Division 1 and substituting the following Division heading:

“Division 1 — Unmasking allowance”.

Amendment of regulation 22

12. Regulation 22 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by deleting paragraph (1) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(1) An organiser of a religious gathering taking place in a venue must take, or cause to be taken, all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that there is, at any time during the period of the religious gathering, a total of not more than 10 individuals in the venue who are unmasked because they are either engaged in public speaking or performing in a live performance at that religious gathering.”; and

(b)

by deleting the regulation heading and substituting the following regulation heading:

“Maximum number of individuals who may be unmasked”.

Amendment of regulation 24

13. Regulation 24(1) of the principal Regulations is amended by deleting the words “must wear a mask when engaged” and substituting the words “may unmask when and only to the extent necessary to engage”.

Amendment of regulation 25

14. Regulation 25 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by deleting paragraph (1) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(1) An organiser of a religious gathering must take, or cause to be taken, all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that —

(a)	every religious worker or volunteer engaged in public speaking during the period of the religious gathering is not unmasked for a time longer than when so engaged in public speaking; and
(b)	subject to regulation 22, there is, at any time during that period, a total of not more than 10 religious workers or volunteers who are unmasked because they are engaged in public speaking.”; and

(b)

by deleting the regulation heading and substituting the following regulation heading:

“Unmasking only for public speaking”.

New regulation 28A

15. The principal Regulations are amended by inserting, immediately after regulation 28, the following regulation:

“Live performance requiring cleared performers and crew

28A.—(1) An organiser of a religious gathering involving a live performance which is not a rehearsal must not organise or allow a live performance that has playing a wind musical instrument or singing as an element of the performance (whether alone or in combination with any other performance elements) unless —

(a)

every worshipper attending the religious gathering —

(i)	has a cleared status at all times during the period of the live performance; or
(ii)	is an uncleared junior;

(b)

every performer playing a wind musical instrument or singing (whether or not when wearing a mask) meets one of the following conditions:

(i)

he or she has at all times during the period of the live performance, a cleared status (limited) that is current under the Infectious Diseases (Mass Gathering Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019) Regulations 2021;

(ii)

he or she has a cleared status (general) that is current under the Infectious Diseases (Mass Gathering Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019) Regulations 2021 and, within the period of 24 hours before the end of the period of the live performance —

(A)	he or she undergoes an approved test or approved tests; and
(B)	the individual’s test result is treated under those Regulations either as negative for SARS‑CoV‑2 or an atypical finding for SARS‑CoV‑2; and

(c)

every other performer, and every crew, has a cleared status at all times during the period of the live performance.

(2) An organiser of a religious gathering involving a live performance must not organise or allow a live performance which is a rehearsal that has playing a wind musical instrument or singing as an element of the performance (whether alone or in combination with any other performance elements) unless every crew, and every performer (whether or not playing a wind musical instrument or singing and whether or not when wearing a mask), has a cleared status at all times during the period of the rehearsal.”.

Amendment of regulation 29

16. Regulation 29 of the principal Regulations is amended by inserting, immediately after paragraph (1), the following paragraph:

“(1A) However, and without limiting regulation 28A, where any performer in the live performance does any of the following during the period of the live performance:

(a)	play a wind musical instrument;
(b)	sing,

a person staging the live performance must take all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that the firstmentioned performer is at all times during the period of the live performance at least 2 metres away from any other performer in the live performance.”.

Deletion and substitution of regulation 30

17. Regulation 30 of the principal Regulations is deleted and the following regulation substituted therefor:

“Singing and wind musical instrument performers

30. Without limiting regulation 28A, an organiser of a religious gathering involving a live performance must take all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that at all times during the period of the live performance, there are on or in the stage area, whether masked or unmasked —

(a)	not more than 10 performers who perform by singing, and no other performer is performing by playing a wind musical instrument;
(b)	not more than 10 performers who perform by playing a wind musical instrument, and no other performer is performing by singing; or
(c)	not more than 10 performers, some of whom perform by singing and others by playing a wind musical instrument.”.

Amendment of regulation 31

18. Regulation 31 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by deleting paragraph (1) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(1) An organiser of a religious gathering at a venue involving a live performance must take, or cause to be taken, all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that at all times during the period of the live performance —

(a)	there are on or in the stage area, not more than 10 performers who are unmasked because they are performing in the live performance; and
(b)	every crew, and every other performer in the live performance, in the venue are each wearing a mask.”;

(b)

by deleting the words “Paragraph (1)” in paragraph (2) and substituting the words “Paragraph (1)(b)”;

(c)

by inserting, immediately after paragraph (2), the following paragraph:

“(3) This regulation applies without limiting regulation 30 but is subject to regulation 22.”; and

(d)

by deleting the regulation heading and substituting the following regulation heading:

“Unmasking allowed for performers”.

Amendment of regulation 33

19. Regulation 33 of the principal Regulations is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after the word “unmasked” in paragraph (1), the words “when he or she is on or in the stage area and, for a performer, when not engaged in performing in the live performance”; and

(b)

by deleting paragraph (2) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply where the crew or performer in a live performance would otherwise be permitted under these Regulations to not wear a mask.”.

[G.N. Nos. S 526/2021; S 541/2021]

Made on 9 August 2021.

NG HOW YUE

Permanent Secretary
(Health Development),
Ministry of Health,
Singapore.

[AG/LEGIS/SL/65C/2020/24 Vol. 2]

(To be presented to Parliament under section 34(4) of the COVID‑19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020).

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