An additional 11 more workers of Westlite Woodlands dormitory have been tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday (21 April), which is the biggest number of infections in the migrant worker dormitories in months.
Of the 11, 10 of them have initially recovered from the disease.
This comes after a 35-year-old Bangladeshi residing at the dormitory tested positive for the highly contagious coronavirus on Monday as part of rostered routine testing.
According to a circular written by Westlite Woodlands Dormitory, the 11 residents of the dorm were confirmed to have tested for COVID-19 as of Wednesday morning, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.
“These 11 COVID-19 positive residents are Recovered Workers, and are in addition to the one resident who had been vaccinated and subsequently reported positive on 19th April 2021 (Monday) from Rostered Routine Testing,” said the letter signed by the dormitory’s manager.
The positive cases were gathered after testing 568 pre-emptive tests were carried out on residents from levels two to seven of Block A of the dormitory, on Tuesday.
The letter also noted that the infected workers were sent to the hospital or to a community care facility.
Additionally, the letter also went on to state that as a “precautionary measure”, all 1,146 residents from the block will be sent to a government quarantine facility (GQF) for 14 days.
“These residents will be recalled from work today and required to stay in their units at all times until they are decanted from the dormitory to GQF,” the letter stated.
It added, “Employers need to arrange for meals to be delivered to their employees during this period of time until they are decanted to GQF.”
As for residents in Block B of the dormitory, swab tests will also be conducted on all of them.
Worker tested positive after receiving complete doses of vaccination
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Tuesday that the Bangladeshi man (Case 62181), a work permit holder who works as a construction supervisor at Prosper Environmental & Engineering, was Singapore’s locally transmitted infection with no links to previous cases for Monday (19 April).
He has completed his full COVID-19 vaccine doses on 13 April.
MOH explained that while he received his second dose of the vaccine a week earlier, but could have been infected with the virus before he could build up immunity.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a press release on Wednesday night that one of the recent 11 infected workers is the roommate of Case 62181.
Given that he was labelled as a close contact of the infected worker, he had already been quarantined, however was tested positive at a dedicated quarantine facility.
“To date, 10 recovered workers were found to be Covid-19 positive,” MOM said. “These cases were immediately isolated and conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases to investigate for possible re-infection.
“MOM and MOH are currently investigating the cases and more information will be shared in due course.”
In April last year, Westlite Woodlands dormitory had become a cluster of COVID-19 cases. This was when cases in dormitories began to soar sharply, resulting to lockdowns at many dormitories.
MOH declared on 11 October last year that Westlite Woodlands cluster was closed after no new positive cases were reported there for 28 days.
Though dormitories contributed to most of Singapore’s COVID-19 cases, but the numbers drastically dropped and before Wednesday, only seven cases were reported since 1 January this year.