SINGAPORE - While all religious congregations and services have been suspended until April 30, places of worship may still remain open to cater to individuals who need help from religious leaders, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.

Religious groups can continue to meet, but only if they abide by guidelines that, among other things, restrict them to 10 or fewer people in a group, he said in Parliament on Wednesday (March 25).

Care should also be taken to ensure those who have been overseas recently do not attend these gatherings, he added.

Mr Wong was responding to Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC), who asked about guidelines for major religious festivals taking place over the next two months, including Qing Ming Festival, Easter and Ramadan, in the light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Yam had also asked about the circumstances under which a complete lockdown of Singapore would be considered.

In response, Mr Wong said that while some may use the word "lockdown" when it comes to the question of whether more drastic measures are required to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, the discussion should focus specifically on the measures that may be implemented, and also take into account the reasons for a rise in cases.

"If we continue to see more new cases coming in, and a lot of them are imported cases and we are able to contain and ringfence and isolate them, we may not need to trigger additional measures.

"But if we see more local, transmitted cases - particularly unlinked ones - and that continues to rise despite all that we are doing with strict safe distancing measures, then we may well need to activate next set of brakes in order to slow down the spread of the virus," he said.

Such measures may include suspending schools and closing workplaces that provide non-essential services, he added.