Singapore to block all non-resident entry, transit from India 'until further notice' from Friday night

SINGAPORE is closing its doors indefinitely to all non-residents who have been in India in the last two weeks, starting from 11.59pm on Friday night.

The border curbs came amid a fresh Covid-19 outbreak at a dormitory for foreign labourers, including infections among workers who had already recovered from earlier bouts of the virus.

"There is no evidence that the recent cases at the Westlite Woodlands Dormitory are linked to the new strain from India," the Ministry of Health (MOH) noted in a statement on Thursday.

"But many of the arrivals from India are workers in the construction, marine and process (CMP) sectors... There is still a risk that a leak may happen, and cause another wave of infection in the dormitories."

As such, Singapore will further tighten its border measures with India, it added.

All long-term pass holders and short-term visitors with recent travel history to India - including transit passengers - will be barred from entering or transiting through Singapore as of 11.59pm on Friday.

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The ban, which the MOH said is "until further notice", applies even if travellers have already obtained prior approval for entry into Singapore.

Meanwhile, all travellers who have recently been in India must serve out a full 21-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) order at dedicated SHN facilities, including those who have not completed their original 14-day SHN by 11.59pm on Thursday.

The latest move supersedes a decision just two days earlier, which imposed an extra seven-day SHN on travellers from India but would have allowed them to serve it at their residences.

The MOH added that imported cases suspected of re-infection will be isolated and undergo repeat Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests to monitor their viral loads.

That is after a work pass holder who arrived from India and tested positive for Covid-19 on April 2 was deemed a recovered case and released from isolation four days later.

The 43-year-old was later determined to have infected two household contacts here, as he could have been infectious with a second bout of the disease when he entered Singapore.

In its statement, the MOH flagged the concern that recovered cases could be re-infected, especially as former Covid-19 patients may lose their immunity over time. More than 54,500 foreign worker dormitory residents have tested positive for Covid-19 since the epidemic hit Singapore last year, while some 98,300 more were found to have antibodies by end-2020.

As such, recovered dormitory inhabitants and CMP workers infected more than 270 days prior will no longer be exempted from public health measures such as rostered routine testing (RRT). Newly-arrived workers who have antibodies against Covid-19 will also have to undergo RRT.

All newly-arrived migrant workers deemed to hail from "higher-risk countries or regions" must serve out an SHN at a dedicated facility, with immediate effect, before moving to a Migrant Workers Onboarding Centre (MWOC) for an additional testing regime.

This includes migrant workers with positive antibody results, who had previously been granted early release from SHN since Feb 5, which lowered costs for their employers.

The MWOCs have processed all newly arrived work permit and S Pass holders in the CMP sectors entering Singapore from higher-risk countries and regions from March 15 onwards. The three designated MWOC facilities in Eunos, Punggol and Tengah provide workers with a SHN location and Covid testing, and also issue them with contact-tracing devices.

"With the emergence of new variants of concern around the world, we will closely monitor for re-infection of recovered Covid-19 cases, and are reviewing our border measures for recovered travellers," the MOH said. Its announcement came soon after India reported 314,835 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, setting the world record for the biggest single-day case increase.

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