New COVID-19 Infections Found in Cleared Dorms; Numbers Still Unknown

Singapore has been reporting hundreds of Covid-19 cases for the past months (except for 11 Aug 2020) and a vast majority of the cases come from the dormitories.

So when the handsome face in Singapore’s fight against Covid-19, Mr Lawrence Wong, says dormitories are on scheduled to be cleared and numbers are going to taper down at the end of this month, you go:

Until this headline landed in your Facebook feed this morning:

New COVID-19 Infections Found in Cleared Dorms; Numbers Still Unknown

According to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Covid-19 update on Tuesday, 11 Aug, the Multi-Ministry Task Force has completed the clearing of all dormitories.

There are only 22,500 foreign workers still in isolation and they’ll be tested at the end of their isolation to verify their statuses.

However, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Health Promotion Board (HPB) and Economic Development Board (EDB) said new cases were detected in the already-cleared dormitories.

Not many details were revealed about the fresh infections, including the number of cases detected.

There were reportedly 6 cases linked to Kian Teck Dormitory and 2 others to Kian Teck Hostel, both of which has already been cleared.

Test For Foreign Workers Every 14 Days

Previously, the foreign workers were kept confined to their dormitories while the authorities cleared the dormitories.

However, moving on, there’ll be even higher risks of Covid-19 transmission since there will be daily movement both in and out of the dormitories when the construction, marine and process sectors restart operations.

Workers have to report their temperatures and any symptoms twice each day through an app.

In addition, workers who work onsite and stays at the dormitories are required to be tested every 14 days.

The authorities recommend that employers spread out their workers’ testing so they can have an “overview” of the Covid-19 situation.

As for workers who have just recovered from the coronavirus, they do not have to be tested for 180 days.

Other Safe Management Measures

Besides the testing requirements, there are a few other safe management measures that need to be adhered to:

• Staggered pick-up and drop-off timing
• Minimise mixing between blocks
• Updating of workers’ residential addresses

It was also announced that dormitories which are classified as high-risk of Covid-19 transmission will have the wastewater tested for the presence of the virus.

The number of foreign workers who reported sick will also be closely monitored and tracked.

I guess, at the end of the day, what the task force said is true: Fighting Covid-19 isn’t about stamping it out completely; it’s about flattening the curve.

On 11 Aug, Singapore reports its lowest number of daily new cases (61) in quite a while now. Hopefully, we get to keep that streak going, even though MOH itself isn’t optimistic about that happening.