Boustead Projects halts construction works after Seletar virus case

MAINBOARD-LISTED Boustead Projects on Tuesday morning said it had immediately stopped construction activities on Feb 9 at Seletar Aerospace Heights and a neighbouring facility. This was after being informed of its first confirmed Covid-19 case at Seletar Aerospace Heights.

Works were halted to carry out cleaning and disinfection of both sites, the real estate player said in a regulatory update.

There are five confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus related to the Seletar Aerospace Heights cluster, who are workers with the company's subcontractor, it said. They are identified as cases 42, 47, 52, 56 and 69 by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Boustead said that the workers are not known to have worked at or entered the neighbouring facility, and their activities were limited to 8 Seletar Aerospace Heights and 12 Seletar Aerospace Heights.

Following the diagnoses of cases 42 and 47, the company stopped construction activities on Feb 9 to clean and disinfect Seletar Aerospace Heights and the neighbouring facility. 

The company added that after the confirmation of case 47 on Feb 11, it collaborated with MOH and the relevant authorities to conduct further contact tracing and inspection of the site for compliance with relevant MOH and National Environmental Agency guidelines.

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Boustead Projects said that prior to the detection of case 42, the company had already implemented preventative and control measures at its office and project site.

During the Yellow status of the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon), the company rolled out twice a day temperature screenings for all workers and instructed them to inform their supervisors and seek immediate medical attention if unwell.

When the Dorscon rose to Orange on Feb 7, additional measures such as the stopping of all mass meetings or activities at its office and project sites were taken and meetings were also broken down into smaller functional groups. The different construction trades at project sites were also compartmentalised to minimise contact.

Cases 52 and 56 were confirmed on Feb 13, and case 69 was confirmed on Feb 15.

"In view of the current development in confirmed cases and the fluidity of the existing situation, the company is continuing to assess the potential impact on the project and its business, and will provide further updates in due course," the announcement added.

The counter was trading at S$0.94 as at 10.04am on Tuesday, up one Singapore cent or 1.1 per cent, after the announcement.