BHG Bugis Junction closed until Aug 30; Covid-19 cluster grows to 61

SINGAPORE — The BHG Bugis Junction department store will be closed to the public for another five days until Aug 30 to break any potential chain of Covid-19 transmission linked to it.

The Ministry of Health (MOH), which announced this in its nightly update of the coronavirus situation on Wednesday (Aug 25), said that there are now a total of 61 cases linked to the Bugis Junction cluster after 38 more were added for the day.

Of these 61 cases, 51 are people who work at the mall — of whom 46 are workers of BHG, a department store. The remaining 10 are visitors to the mall.

MOH said that staff members who have been working in the affected shops at the mall are being tested and that close contacts of the confirmed cases will be quarantined.

The ministry had on Tuesday extended free Covid-19 testing for members of the public who had visited the retail shops or used the services or facilities at the mall.

Separately, MOH said that there were 10 new cases linked to the Selarang Halfway House, bringing the total number of infections there to 19.

The Selarang Halfway House is a facility located on Upper Changi Road North that runs programmes to help former prisoners better reintegrate into society.

Among the 19 infected there, 17 are supervisees (the ex-offenders) and two are household or workplace contacts of these supervisees.

“All staff of Selarang Halfway House and residents of the affected block have been tested for Covid-19, and all close contacts of cases and supervisees living in the same block will be placed on quarantine,” MOH said.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, TODAY stated that the Bugis Junction mall will be closed until Aug 30. This is incorrect. The BHG Bugis Junction department store will be closed until Aug 30. We are sorry for the error.