Singapore | The temperature screening points that have loomed large at every office block, shopping mall and many restaurants and bars in Singapore are losing their power. For a year and a half, these machines have ruled lives. Often you were required to dip your forehead to get the sensor to work, which felt like a weird sort of obeisance to the pandemic gods.

And, always, the shot of anxiety as you waited for the light to flash green. What would happen if you didn’t get the electronic OK? Would you just be refused entry? Or would a pack of PPE-clad workers suddenly appear and take your too-hot body away?