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Covid-19: Two foreign workers first to be charged with breaching quarantine orders

SINGAPORE — In the first prosecutions of their kind since the Covid-19 outbreak, two work permit holders here were charged in court on Friday (April 17) over allegedly leaving their places of isolation after they had been placed on quarantine orders.

Liu Dufeng, 49, (left) and Vardireddy Nageswara Reddy, 35, outside the State Courts on April 17, 2020. Both are accused of breaching quarantine orders.

Liu Dufeng, 49, (left) and Vardireddy Nageswara Reddy, 35, outside the State Courts on April 17, 2020. Both are accused of breaching quarantine orders.

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SINGAPORE — In the first prosecutions of their kind since the Covid-19 outbreak, two work permit holders here were charged in court on Friday (April 17) over allegedly leaving their places of isolation after they had been placed on quarantine orders.

Liu Dufeng, a 49-year-old Chinese national, faces two charges under Section 15(4)(b) of the Infectious Diseases Act, which states that it is an offence for people under quarantine to leave or attempt to leave their place of isolation.

His charge sheets stated that Liu was suspected to be a contact of a Covid-19 case and was ordered by the Ministry of Health’s director of medical services to stay in his place of isolation from Feb 12 to 24.

But he allegedly left the premises at about 7pm on Feb 19, and allegedly did so again between 10.30am and 12pm on Feb 21.

Liu told the court that he wishes to claim trial for one of his two charges.

He told District Judge Terence Tay that he left the premises at one address in Genting Road in MacPherson on Feb 19 only because he was asked by his company to move to a different premises, also in Genting Road, since there was “no space for him”.

Both those addresses appear to be occupied by commercial operations.

“I was merely following the company’s instructions,” he said through a Mandarin interpreter.

However, in a press release issued on Friday evening, after Liu had been charged, the Ministry of Health (MOH) alleged that Liu failed to inform his employer that he was not supposed to relocate during the quarantine period.

He also failed to seek permission from the director of medical services prior to the relocation, MOH said.

Giving more details on the alleged breach on Feb 21, the ministry said investigations revealed that Liu had allegedly gone out in search of a bank at MacPherson Road nearby.

Vardireddy Nageswara Reddy, a 35-year-old Indian national, faces one charge under the same provision.

He was ordered by the director of medical services to remain in his place of isolation from Feb 16 to 25, but he allegedly left the premises between 8.10pm and 8.35pm on Feb 24. The location of Vardireddy’s isolation premises was redacted from court documents.

Vardireddy told the court on Friday that he intends to plead guilty to his charge.

The MOH statement noted that Vardireddy’s quarantine period was initially supposed to end on Feb 20, but it was subsequently extended to 12pm on Feb 25.

According to the ministry, he had allegedly gone to a neighbourhood shopping mall to purchase some items without the permission of the director of medical services.

If convicted, each of the two accused men could be jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$10,000 or both on each charge.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the court had previously heard only cases of those who breached conditions under 14-day stay-home notices, which are issued to people returning from abroad to prevent further importation of Covid-19 cases. These involve different provisions of the Act.

The outcomes of three cases of this type are pending.

In one of these cases, Alan Tham Xiang Sheng, 34, pleaded guilty to one charge under Section 21A(1) of the Act after going out for a bak kut teh (pork rib soup) dinner when he should have been at home. The prosecution has asked for a jail term of at least 10 to 12 weeks for Tham.

Tham has yet to be sentenced.

The courts have not yet taken the pleas of the other two accused persons.

Ministry of Health prosecutor Andre Moses Tan indicated on Friday that the prosecution wishes to wait for the outcome for one of the stay-home notice cases before making their submissions over these latest two cases involving foreign workers.

Vardireddy will return to court on April 23 for a further mention of his case.

Liu will return to court on May 8 for a pre-trial conference.

The charges came a day after Singapore reported its sharpest single-day spike of 728 new Covid-19 cases, of which 654 were from foreign worker dormitories, bringing the total number of cases islandwide to 4,427.

A total of 12 foreign worker dormitories have been gazetted as isolation areas under the Infectious Diseases Act. Workers living there are quarantined in their rooms for 14 days.

Related topics

quarantine breach Covid-19 coronavirus

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