About Half of Migrant Workers in Westlite Jalan Tukang Dormitory Have Unverified Vaccination Status

By
George Yang
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Over the last few days, vaccinated folks in coffee shops and unvaccinated community cats have only been talking about two topics: Sylvia Chan and the Westlite Jalan Tukang dormitory.

Last year, bad living conditions in several existing dormitories led to large COVID-19 clusters popping in Singapore.

Now, vaccines are readily available, safe management measures are everywhere, living conditions in current dormitories have been improved and new dormitories made to avoid the spread of COVID-19 have been built.

Things should get better, right?

Right?

About Half of Migrant Workers in Westlite Jalan Tukang Dormitory Have Unverified Vaccination Status

Of course not; read this article if you’ve not done so.

For brevity’s sake, here’s what happened: a new dormitory led to the arrival of riot police because the living conditions were a scene from a Contagion: worms were found in food, people who were infected with COVID-19 were allegedly left to recover on their own with no isolation and no medicine in a room of five, and the residents alleged that the management didn’t care about the sick.

MOM came to investigate, but let’s face it: it became newsworthy because riot policemen with protective gears had to put up barricades and riot shields.

Thankfully, no violence was spotted.

The dorm said that the problem arose due to a spike in COVID-19 cases amongst the Sembcorp Marine’s workers living in the dormitories, and they’re now working with relevant authorities to resolve the various issues highlighted.

This begs the question: Are they all vaccinated?

Well, it depends on how you define “vaccinated”.

Sembcorp Marine workers occupied 1,400 of the beds there, and according to them, all of them were vaccinated in their home country, suggesting that they might be new migrant workers.

However, the chief of MOM’s Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) Group Tung Yui Fai said that “majority have not been vaccinated.”

So here’s the issue: it’s unclear because to verify whether they’re vaccinated or not, they need “to show documentary proof of their overseas vaccination, and a positive serology test result from an approved medical provider in Singapore.”

This would take weeks.

According to MOM, “as at Oct 16, 55% of the migrant workers residing in Westlite Jalan Tukang dormitory have verified their vaccination status, or have been vaccinated.”

Workers who aren’t vaccinated, or didn’t take an approved vaccine, will be offered the vaccine.

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Featured Image: MOM

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]