Singapore's National Day Parade celebrations at the Marina Bay floating platform in 2018. The announcement came asSingapore reverted to stricter preventive measures against the pandemic, whichare scheduled to last until August 18, after the National Day (August 9).
The heartland fireworksand Red Lions displays previously announced to be held on August 7 and 8 willbe cancelled. The NDP rehearsal previously planned for July 24 and the previewon July 31 have also been postponed, said Mindef.
The postponement of theevent comes after several petitions emerged online calling for the parade’scancellation out of concern that proceeding with the parade could lead to afurther spread of COVID-19. One petition on Change.org calling for thecancellation of NDP had gathered more than 36,000 signatures.
Last month, Mindefannounced that the parade will return to The Float@Marina Bay on August 9 on asmaller scale compared with pre-pandemic years. There would be fewer spectatorsand participants than usual and all of them must also be fully vaccinated.
A total of 162 new locallytransmitted COVID-19 infections were reported in Singapore on July 22,including 52 new infections not linked to previous cases. The Southeast Asiancountry has so far confirmed 63,791 cases./.
VNA
