Crowne Plaza Changi Airport closed for two weeks after second Covid-19 case

[SINGAPORE] Crowne Plaza Changi Airport will be closed for two weeks from Friday (Jan 8) after a second unlinked Covid-19 case working at the hotel's restaurant emerged.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (Jan 7) said it is closing the hotel till Jan 21 as a precautionary measure, as it cannot exclude that transmissions could have occurred at the hotel.

The hotel will stop accepting new guests, and foreign air crew and guests currently staying at the hotel will be checked out progressively, said MOH.

Incoming air crew will be housed in alternative facilities, it added.

Restaurant and event spaces within the hotel will also be closed, and deep cleaning and disinfection carried out.

MOH has commenced a special testing operations to test all staff working at the hotel for Covid-19.

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The hotel staff who worked at restaurant Azur is a 43-year-old Malaysian woman who delivers pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests. She was one of two unlinked community cases reported on Thursday.

The work permit holder is the second staff to test positive for the infection after a Korean national was confirmed as a Covid-19 patient on Wednesday.

Like the Korean, she does not interact with diners at the restaurant.

MOH said she developed symptoms while at work on Jan 3 and went to a general practitioner clinic on Tuesday where she was tested.

Her result came back positive for Covid-19 infection the next day, and she was brought to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance.

Her serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

Preliminary investigations reveal that she is probably not infected with the more infectious UK strain of Covid-19, said MOH.

The second community case is a 63-year-old cargo operator at AirMark Aviation who is based at Dnata Cargo Centre.

He mainly handles loading and unloading of cargo for My Indo Airlines, and does not interact with flight passengers.

He developed symptoms on Monday, and sought treatment at Changi General Hospital on Wednesday.

He was confirmed to be positive for Covid-19 on the same day, and was warded. His serological test result is pending.

There were also 31 imported cases confirmed by MOH, taking Singapore's total to 58,813.

The 31 imported cases reported on Thursday comprise four Singaporeans, three permanent residents, three dependant's pass holders, two work pass holders and 19 work permit holders.

All except one case were placed on stay-home notices (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN, said the Health Ministry.

The work permit holder arrived from Bangladesh on Dec 22 but could not clear immigration due to incomplete documentation. He was held at a facility located at the airport's transit area until Dec 24, and conveyed to a dedicated SHN facility after the issues were resolved.

They tested positive while serving stay-home notices or in isolation after their arrival in Singapore, said MOH.

They came from several countries including India, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

THE STRAITS TIMES