By About 342 migrant workers staying in Space@Tuas dormitory block were moved to a Government Quarantine Facility to serve a mandatory 14-day quarantine after a new COVID-19 case was detected in the dormitory, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Thursday (1 Oct).
In a press statement, MOM said that the new case was detected on Monday (28 Sep) through the Rostered Routine Testing (RRT).
“Preliminary assessment had indicated that the physical segregation measures to prevent workers across two different blocks within the dormitory from intermixing could have been breached,” said the Ministry.
It added that a Stay Home Notice (SHN) was therefore immediately issued to the workers staying at these two blocks.
But after the further investigation, it was established that it was unlikely for workers from different blocks to have intermixed.
“The SHN for the unaffected block was therefore rescinded,” the statement read.
However, according to MOM, safe living measures were not strictly enforced within the affected block where the new case was living in.
“As such, 342 residents, who work for 27 employers, living in the affected block were deemed at risk and needed to be quarantined,” the Ministry noted.
During the multi-ministry task force press conference on 9 September, Second Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng said that the Government is “prepared” for the new infections as there have been about 45 new infections detected among the cleared dormitories daily since all the dormitories were declared cleared of COVID-19 on 11 August.
Dr Tan also explained that many of the dormitory residents have never been infected with COVID-19, and therefore they remain susceptible to the virus.