Covid-19: Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre reopens with enhanced safety measures after 3-day closure

SINGAPORE — Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre reopened at 3pm on Thursday (Sept 30) with enhanced safety measures in place, following a three-day closure after Covid-19 cases were detected among people who worked at and visited the premises.

The enhanced measures, to take effect immediately, include the wearing of coloured wristbands by all tenants and workers, to signify the sector of the centre in which they work, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said in a news release on Thursday.

The sectors of the centre comprise fruits, vegetables, dried goods and cold rooms. Workers are not allowed to cross sectors within the centre unnecessarily, SFA added.

Before the temporary closure on Monday afternoon, safety measures in place since March last year included restricted access to the wholesale centre, on-arrival testing for trade visitors and a 14-day rostered routine testing for staff members and tenants.

Under the enhanced measures, the rostered routine testing will move to a seven-day routine and on-arrival testing will continue for visitors.

The number of workers allowed access to cold rooms will also be controlled, based on factors such as the size of the cold room leased and other operational requirements.

Workers who access the cold rooms will have to return negative tests twice a week before access is granted, SFA said.

Another enhanced measure is that a maximum crowd capacity of 250 trade visitors at Block 13A of the vegetable sector will apply during night trading hours.

During the closure, tenants and workers were required to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and only those who had negative results were allowed to resume operations on Thursday.

Deep cleaning and disinfection of the premises was conducted and SFA worked closely with stakeholders to identify areas to enhance safety measures, it said.