Everything About the New Risk-Based Zones Arrangements in Changi Airport Summarised for You

With COVID-19 still raging globally, Changi Airport—already host to Singapore’s largest non-dormitory cluster—will take additional precautions to prevent further coronavirus transmissions into the community, according to The Straits Times.

Risk-Based Zones to Be Set Up

Changi Airport Group (CAG)’s 14,000 strong workforce will be divided into three distinct groups designated for duties with different risk profiles. There will be no cross-deployment across the three zones to further minimise risks of viral transmission.

The lowest risk Zone 3 will consist of public meeting areas, while the higher-risk Zone 2 includes the departure immigration area and the central transit area.

The highest-risk Zone 1 includes departure and arrival gates, the arrival immigration hall, and the baggage claim hall.

The 4,400 workers to be assigned to the highest-risk zone will work under strict protection: they will have to be young and vaccinated, be tested every seven days, and wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) at all times. 

These include a surgical or N95 mask, a face shield, gloves, and a surgical gown, which they cannot take off except during meal times and toilet breaks. 

They will also dine and rest in designated areas, and must go through the proper procedures for donning and doffing PPE while entering or exiting them.

To give them peace of mind as they leave their workplace everyday, CAG is also planning to introduce non-invasive tests for Zone 1 workers that they can take daily.

Zones 2 and 3 workers will have to be tested every 14 days, as compared to the previous 28, and CAG aims to have 90% of these workers vaccinated.

Travellers from the highest-risk countries will also pass through immigration separate from everyone else. They will now be escorted to remote gates in Terminal 2, which are currently closed for renovation, where immigration counters are set up for this purpose. 

Yep, those are the gates you hoped you didn’t have to use back when air travel was still a thing.

Following immigration clearance, they will be moved to their quarantine facility directly from the gate by bus. (I wish I had that VIP treatment.)

It is unclear where the “very high-risk” countries are; CAG chose instead to explain that their risk assessment was dynamic.

These measures will be gradually put in place and will be fully implemented by 13 June, when the heightened alert period ends.

Or will it? Never mind, I shall not jinx it.

CAG chief executive Lee Seow Hiang described these new measures as a “fundamental redesign” of the airport’s operating processes, under the new assumption that any transient contact with incoming travellers can bear risk for COVID-19 transmission.

He also expects this mode of operations to last “as long as COVID-19 is with us”, though it can be scaled back when current border restrictions are eased.

These new measures are designed with the more transmissible B1617 variant of the coronavirus in mind, which caused the need to “reinvent our operating processes…[to] decisively ring fence and segment the zone serving arriving passengers”, according to Mr Lee.

Feature Image: EQRoy / Shutterstock.com