SINGAPORE - Mask-wearing on public transport in Singapore stopped being mandatory on Monday, but most commuters were seen retaining their face coverings while on trains and buses Monday morning.
A multi-Mini-Minister task force announced last week that it would no longer require the donning of masks on public transport, as Singapore steps down its disease alert level for COVID 19 to the lowest.
A 37-year-old lawyer who only wanted to be known as Ang kept his mask on for his train commute on the North-South Line from Ang Mo Kio to his Raffles Place workplace on Monday morning.
He told CNA that the train was really crowded. It's just more socially responsible for someone who just recovered from an illness, so it's more out of consideration for others as well. He observed that about 90 to 95 percent of people on the train were also wearing a mask.
I will probably stop wearing one but for now, out of precaution, because it has worked so far, so why change something that has worked? Mr Ang said trains and buses were more enclosed than other indoor areas.
We'll see if it works over the next two weeks if cases get higher. Ms Patricia Yap, a personal assistant, was waiting at the Dover MRT station to catch a bus to Bukit Merah. She was not wearing a mask and was not wearing a mask when she took a train to Dover earlier in the day.
She said it feels good because it doesn't smear my makeup, because she said that the train she took this morning was less crowded.
There are still a lot of people wearing masks, even outside. Since the restriction was lifted, I've not been wearing masks in indoor places, said Ms Yap, who had been looking forward to Monday's relaxation of public transport safeguards.
I'm used to not wearing masks now. From 8 am to 9 am on a crowded East-West Line train with people making their way to work, only a handful of commuters in each cabin chose not to wear a mask, CNA observed.
The commuters had more standing room on the slightly less packed Circle and North-East lines. CNA observed that most passengers still had a mask, with some putting them on specifically for when they were about to board a train.
After alighting from the trains or exiting the stations, many commuters removed their masks.