SINGAPORE - Vaccination-differentiated safe management measures will kick in at all indoor sports facilities from Tuesday (Feb 1), but it will be business as usual for public and private operators, as those whom The Straits Times spoke to are well prepared after having implemented the rules well ahead of the deadline.
From Tuesday, all users at indoor sports and fitness facilities have to be fully vaccinated, medically ineligible for Covid-19 vaccines, or have recovered from the virus. Children aged 12 and below are also allowed to enter these places.
Sport Singapore (SportSG), which operates 26 swimming complexes and 24 fitness gyms around the island, said the sport and fitness sector has been implementing vaccination-differentiated measures for higher risk activities like indoor mask-off activities at gyms since August 2021.
Its spokesman added: "This includes our ActiveSG sport centres, which have been implementing vaccination differentiated measures for indoor unmasked activities from the same period, with staff conducting vaccination status checks at the door before entry is granted. These stringent checks will continue.
"As part of continued efforts to keep the sport and fitness industry abreast of the latest safe management measures, SportSG has been providing information on advisory updates through our website and social media, as well as regular engagements with stakeholders in the sport and fitness sector."
The People's Association said in a statement that it has progressively implemented vaccination-differentiated measures across community clubs and centres for selected sports activities since late last year.
This is also the case for the Singapore Sports Hub, which runs several venues and facilities in Kallang, including the OCBC Aquatic Centre, OCBC Arena, Sports Hub Gym, Water Sports Centre, hard courts, and exercise and fitness stations.
Private operators like Coldcut, which runs floorball facility Red Quarters, are also on board. The sports company was part of a recent pilot scheme that allowed 10 fully vaccinated persons to play the sport.
On the scheme, which kicks in on Tuesday, manager Tony Tan said: "It doesn't really affect us as we are operating under the current pilot scheme, which means our customers are already fully vaccinated.
"We opened our facility in 2020 during phase three and business now is returning to those initial levels. We were pleasantly surprised because when we were first accepted into the pilot scheme, we were concerned how customers would react to having to take the ART (antigen rapid test), but it's become quite the norm for them. We see our regulars back as well. It's been quite well received."
Beyond the usual screening measures, operators also have to ensure that their patrons' vaccination status is checked and recorded manually or electronically.
Mr Rajesh Mulani, co-owner at futsal facility The Cage, which has pitches in Kallang and Turf City, said he has had to double his manpower to cope with the measures. The Cage is part of the pilot scheme that requires participants to do an on-site ART at the venue 30 minutes before each game.
Only two staff were required previously to run each facility, but up to six a day are now required with the new measures.
Said Mr Mulani: "Running the testing, checking in and overall management of the groups is manpower-heavy. We had no choice but to beef up on temporary staff."
But things have run smoothly and there has been no pushback from customers when it comes to the vaccination-differentiated measures.
He added: "We have had no bad experiences. Generally, customers understand the need for vaccination. There have been one or two outliers who arrived and were unvaccinated and had to be turned away, but besides that there has been no drama."
