Sixty-nine more dormitories cleared of Covid-19: MOM

THE Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has cleared 69 more dormitories of Covid-19 with effect from Tuesday, it said in a statement.

The dormitories comprise three purpose-built dormitories (PBD), 59 factory-converted dormitories and seven construction temporary quarters. In addition, 41 blocks for recovered workers (BRWs) in 11 PBDs were also cleared of the novel coronavirus. These include the remaining blocks in Tampines Dormitory, Cochrane Lodge 1, Cochrane Lodge 2, Changi Lodge 2 and Sungei Tengah Lodge, allowing these dormitories to be fully cleared of Covid-19, MOM said.

Sungei Tengah Lodge is the largest PBD with around 16,000 workers, all of whom can immediately return to work if their employers have obtained approval from their sector agencies to restart operations, the ministry added.

MOM said that as at Tuesday, 891 dormitories and 56 BRWs in 17 PBDs had been cleared of Covid-19.

As at Monday, some 247,000 workers had either recovered or had been tested to be free from the virus.

Some of these workers are pending movement to appropriate accommodations before they can resume work. Others can return to work once dormitory operators, employers and workers have made the necessary preparations to complete three required steps to minimise the risk of new infections as the workers go to work on a daily basis, MOM said.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

These steps are: dormitory operators and employers arranging staggered pick-up/drop-off timings for workers, employers confirming or updating the residential addresses of their workers on the MOM database, and workers downloading the FWMOMCare and TraceTogether apps to update their health status, report their residence location, and facilitate contact tracing.

MOM said most of the dormitories completed these steps in a week or less.

It added that the the inter-agency task force set up to manage the Covid-19 situation is also progressively implementing additional decontamination measures to allow more recovered workers from uncleared blocks/dormitories to resume work safely without compromising public health.