13 Worksites Stopped After a Previously-Cleared Dorm Was Announced as a New Cluster

At this point, it really seems like there’s no escaping the coronavirus, despite how many strict measures are put in place.

It turns up again when you least expect it, which is what happened a few days ago at Singapore’s biggest dormitory.

Lest you haven’t heard, the Ministry of Health announced a new cluster at the Sungei Tengah Lodge on Sunday, 23 Aug, after two new coronavirus cases were linked to the previous 55 ones there.

Then, one more case was linked to the cluster yesterday, making it 58 cases.

Due to this latest update, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) had to order some worksites to close.

BCA Issues Stop Work Orders to 13 Worksites

BCA issued stop-work orders to 13 worksites on Monday night, and all the affected sites are part of 20 construction projects that were issued a safety time-out notice on Sunday after the new cluster was announced.

According to the Straits Times, a spokesman from BCA said, “A stop-work order is issued to the builder to rectify any shortcomings in safe management measures on-site or introduce new measures to curb the risk of Covid-19 transmission.”

Most of these worksites are commercial and infrastructure projects.

4,800 Workers Issued SHN 

Sungei Tengah Lodge is Singapore’s largest purpose-built dormitory, and it houses 16,000 workers.

It was declared clear of Covid-19 by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on 21 July.

Before that, it had over 2,200 confirmed cases.

Since the dormitory was declared a new cluster on Sunday, around 4,800 workers were issued Stay-Home Notices (SHN) as a precautionary measure.

Those who were not issued SHN are either workers who have recently recovered from the virus, or they were not close contacts of any of the new confirmed cases.

“In line with the guidance from the Ministry of Health, these workers will be allowed to continue to work and are not required to be isolated. However, all who are not recently recovered workers will continue to be subjected to RRT,” said a joint statement from MOM, MOH and BCA.

RRT refers to Rostered Routine Testing (RRT), which is how the vast majority of new cases were detected. The rest were detected as a part of the testing of persons under quarantine.

MOM will be testing the 4,800 workers currently on SHN over the next few days, and those who test positive will be sent to the community care facility or hospital to receive medical treatment.

Another Dormitory Cluster at Homestay Lodge

Apart from the Sungei Tengah Lodge cluster, another new dormitory cluster was reported recently as well.

One of the newly confirmed Covid-19 cases yesterday was linked to four previously confirmed cases, which forms a new cluster at Homestay Lodge at 39 Kaki Bukit Avenue 3.

Singapore announced 51 new Covid-19 cases on 24 Aug, which brings the total number of cases to 56,404.

There were 1 community case and 7 imported cases.

All imported cases were placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore.

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