All foreign worker dorms, except those serving as quarantine facilities, to be cleared of Covid-19 by early August

• The authorities will start working with companies to get workers ready for work
• 28,000 workers will continue to serve out their isolation period at 17 standalone blocks in eight purpose-built dormitories
• Swab operations will be conducted to further ringfence any cases of infection

SINGAPORE — All foreign worker dormitories, except those being used as special quarantine facilities, are expected to be cleared of Covid-19 by the first week of August, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said on Friday (July 24).

This means that all migrant workers living in dormitories will be cleared in the next two weeks, with the exception of 28,000 workers. These are still serving out their isolation period at 17 standalone blocks in eight purpose-built dormitories that would serve as quarantine facilities, he said.

It also means that the authorities will soon start working closely with companies, including contractors, to allow their workers to return to work, Mr Wong said during a virtual press conference to give an update on the situation here.

The Ministry of Health (MOH), in a press release on Friday, reiterated that the daily case counts are expected to be high in the next two weeks as the last cohort of workers to be cleared come from dormitories with a relatively high prevalence of Covid-19. The daily case counts will taper after that, MOH added.

The workers are subjected to a final test before they complete their isolation periods.

More than 300,000 workers here live in dormitories, either purpose-built or factory-converted ones.

Mr Wong had said during a press conference last Friday that more than 230,000 workers had either recovered or were tested to be free of the coronavirus. He said then that the aim was to clear dormitories of the coronavirus by mid-August or “possibly earlier than that”.

MOH said on Friday that it will be stepping up its overall surveillance, active case-finding and Covid-19 containment efforts, so as to detect and ringfence cases of infection as early as possible.

Besides placing close contacts of confirmed cases under quarantine, the ministry said that suspected cases will also be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period to pick up any cases of infection early.

Where infection clusters arise, the authorities will also undertake “swift action” to quarantine and test close contacts, mount swab operations and suspend operations at relevant facilities if deemed necessary, it said.

Seven such swab operations had been conducted at places associated with newly emergent workplace clusters over recent months, it added.

These included two workplaces at Keppel Shipyard and Northpoint City mall, where a total of more than 1,300 workers were tested and two positive cases were uncovered, in addition to six who were tested as persons under quarantine as a result of their close contact with the confirmed cases.

Beyond the workplaces, the authorities had also launched swab operations to test individuals at retail premises frequented by several positive cases.

Close to 60 staff members at New World Centre’s Sheng Siong supermarket branch and more than 40 staff members of Haniffa supermarket at Little India’s Dunlop Street were tested through these means, and none tested positive, it stated.

The authorities had also moved to place 58 households residing at Block 111 Tampines Street 11 under phone surveillance and tested these individuals and their visitors as a precautionary measure after cases were discovered from two households living at the block. So far, no new cases have been detected there, it added.

MOH said that it has been stepping up general surveillance efforts and this includes an effort by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to test the waste water coming out of 34 worker dormitories to pick up early signals of emerging clusters.

NEA plans to progressively expand such surveillance to include more workers’ dormitories and other populous living quarters such as nursing homes and hostels.