Selected public sport facilities to reopen for bookings from Nov 21

Members of the public can now book and use selected school fields as well as indoor sports halls during the year-end holidays under the dual-use scheme (DUS). 

Public use of these facilities were suspended in March as authorities sought to curb the spread of COVID-19. 

For a start, 50 chargeable fields and 119 indoor sports halls from 135 primary and secondary schools will be made available for booking from Nov 21 to Dec 27 through the ActiveSG app. 

Chargeable fields refer to fields which users have to book and make payment via the ActiveSG portal. 

It was also stated in a joint media release by Sport Singapore (SportSG) and Ministry of Education (MOE) that public use of DUS facilities, such as free-to-play fields and courts not within the indoor sport halls will remain suspended. 

“The intent of reopening DUS facilities during the year-end school holidays is to offer more spaces for members of the public to exercise, while ensuring that the safety of our players, as well as of school students and staff, are not compromised,” said Mr Sng Hock Lin, chief of ActiveSG. 

“While we want to encourage everyone to continue leading an active lifestyle, we urge all to do so safely and responsibly, and to remain vigilant.”

For those using badminton facilities, a maximum of five persons per court will be allowed entry into the indoor sports hall, including an instructor or coach. 

However, up to four players will be allowed to play on the court at any one time.

A maximum of five persons will be allowed per court at any one time for other sports such as netball, volleyball, basketball and floorball. 

For chargeable fields, there will be a cap of 50 persons allowed on each field and activities have to be conducted in groups of five.

As for football, up to two groups of five will be allowed on the field at any time and they must be kept 3m apart from one another.

To reduce the risk of community transmission, individuals who use these facilities must adhere to Safe Management Measures (SMMs) and that includes SafeEntry and temperature taking. 

Intermingling between different groups will not be allowed and it is mandatory for the person who booked the facility to be present during the time of play. 

A Safe Distancing Ambassador and a facility warden will also be stationed at each facility to ensure that players observe the SMMs. Action will be taken against individuals who fail to comply, said SportSG. 

At the end of each day of public use, all touch points within these facilities will be wiped down. They will also be thoroughly cleaned before the start of the school term in January 2021. 

Depending on how the COVID-19 situation evolves, SportSG and MOE added they will jointly review the feasibility of extending public use of DUS facilities beyond Dec 27.