Singapore will halt restaurant dining and ban gatherings of more than two people for one month from Thursday, the health ministry said, as a further rise in coronavirus cases deals a blow to the country's reopening plans.

The restrictions will be reviewed in two weeks as the country nears its milestone of vaccinating two-thirds of its population by August 9, according to Reuters.

Singapore's daily new case numbers are only a fraction of those reported elsewhere in Southeast Asian, but the tightening of measures just days after easing them is a setback for an Asian business hub eager to move on from the pandemic.

"We have to make this pre-emptive tightening so that we can cut back on our overall activity levels and slow down the transmission," says Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the coronavirus task force. "The objective now is to buy us time so that we can vaccinate more people, especially our seniors."