Singapore will do away with requirements to wear masks indoors starting August 29, as the country sees its COVID-19 situation stabilise further, the health minister said on Wednesday.
For the first time in more than two years, people in the Southeast Asian city-state will no longer be required to wear masks indoors except on public transport and in high-risk settings like healthcare facilities.
The health ministry also updated rules for non-vaccinated travellers, dropping a 7-day quarantine requirement starting next week.
Singapore, which is a major Asian financial and travel hub, lifted most pandemic curbs, including travel restrictions, earlier this year.
About 70 per cent of the city-state's 5.5 million population has already contracted COVID-19, Ong Ye Kung, the health minister said in a news conference, adding that the re-infection rate is so far "very low".
Singapore has vaccinated more than 90 per cent of its population and has among the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.
A Palestinian teen has been shot dead during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
At least 17 migrants have died, and nine are missing after their boat broke down and drifted for eight days in the Mediterranean Sea, Libya's Red Crescent and Libyan security sources said on Wednesday.
Israel has begun taking control of aid ships bound for Gaza far from Israeli shores, Israeli army radio cited an Israeli source as saying on Wednesday.
Donald Trump discussed how to mitigate the impact of a possible months-long US blockade of Iran's ports with US oil companies, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the US president urged Tehran to 'get smart soon' and sign a deal.
Seven people have died after a 2.5 metre wall at a hospital complex collapsed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, a state official said on Wednesday.