When should I wear a mask?

From 1 March 2024, MOH will step down the masking requirements at lower-risk healthcare settings. Mask-wearing will no longer be compulsory for patients, visitors and staff in outpatient settings, including polyclinics, General Practitioner clinics, specialist outpatient clinics, dialysis centres, Traditional Chinese Medicine clinics and dental clinics. However, mask-wearing is still strongly encouraged for medically vulnerable persons, seniors and persons with acute respiratory infection (ARI) in these settings.

To protect medically vulnerable persons and seniors, mask-wearing will continue to be required for higher-risk healthcare settings, including inpatient wards, emergency departments and residential care facilities*. Inpatients of hospitals and residents of residential care facilities are not required to wear a mask. Nevertheless, as good practice, we encourage residents and inpatients to wear a mask if they are unwell or develop ARI symptoms. 

Besides healthcare, other authorities may also require mask-wearing, just as the Singapore Food Agency has required food handlers to wear a mask or spit guard for food safety reasons. Private enterprises may also opt to maintain mask-wearing requirements as company policy for workplace health and safety or business continuity reasons.

As mask-wearing is an effective way to minimise the risk of infectious diseases, we encourage members of the public, especially the elderly and immunocompromised, to wear masks in crowded places, or when visiting or interacting with vulnerable persons. We strongly advise individuals who are unwell with symptoms of COVID-19 or other respiratory infections to wear a mask when they need to leave their homes.

* Residential care settings include Nursing Homes (NHs), Psychiatric Rehabilitation Homes (PRHs), Psychiatric Sheltered Home (PSH), Inpatient Hospice.