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SINGAPORE: Nine groups of COVID-19 in foreign employee dormitories were declared closed on Tuesday (August 4), adding the Tuas View Dormitory group, which was connected to more than 1,500 cases.
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), the recently enclosed COVID-19 groups are: SCM Tuas Lodge at 80 Tuas South Boulevard, Tuas View Dormitory at 70 Tuas South Avenue 1, 17 Jalan Besut, five Kian Teck Crescent, 8 Sungei Kadut Avenue, 3 Sungei Kadut Avenue, 11five Tuas View Walk 1, 117 Tuas View Walk 1 and 38 Woodlands Industrial Park E1 – 04-18 / 19.
The Ministry of Health said the inter-agency organization had “systematically cleaned the dormitories through aggressive testing of migrant staff living in dormitories.”
“The (nine) dormitories have been cleared, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for COVID-19 infection. As such, the clusters have now been closed,” added the health ministry.
On Tuesday, there were 1,503 instances similar to the Tuas View bedroom, which is among the first bedrooms where a COVID-19 group was identified.
He declared an isolation zone on April 17 under the Infectious Diseases Act. That order revoked on Tuesday.
127 ADDITIONAL FOREIGN WORKERS CANCELLED
In a separate press Tuesday night, the Ministry of Labor (MOM) said that 127 other dormitories of foreign employees had been released from COVID-19, adding the Tuas View bedroom.
Newly approved services come with 114 factory-converted bedrooms and thirteen transit structure units, MOM said. In addition, 35 blocks for the recovered staff from 12 specially constructed 12 bedrooms were also released from COVID-19.
The 35 blocks come with the remaining blocks of Jurong Penjuru 1, Homestay Lodge, PPT Lodge 1A, Alaunia Lodge and Tuas View Dormitory, allowing all bedrooms to be declared free of COVID-19, MOM added.
A total of 1,109 bedrooms and 14-bedroom reclaimed worker blocks built specifically were cleaned from COVID-19.
“As announced in the past, we expect all bedrooms to be cleaned by early August 2020, with the exception of 17 separate blocks in 8 specially built bedrooms that serve as quarantine facilities,” MOM said.
An additional block in Westlite Mandai Dormitory will remain as a quarantine facility, the press release added.
“This arose from the dormitory operator’s feedback that the residents did not stringently observe the quarantine requirements during the initial 14-day isolation period,” said MOM.
“While many were negative at the end of the isolation period, we calculated the operator’s considerations and believed that it would be prudent to go through the isolation phase.”
The operator will ask residents of the block to cooperate and observe the quarantine requirements so that the block can be cleared without further delay.
On Monday, about 273,000, about 89%, were recovered or evaluated for no COVID-19 damage, the Department of Labor said, up from 262,000 reported last week.
Many of them are staying in cleared dormitories or blocks for recovered workers and can resume work once dormitory operators, employers and workers have made the necessary preparations to help minimise the risk of new infections, said the MOM.
Many bedrooms complete the necessary steps “immediately,” MOM added, and all complete them in a week or less.
Singapore reported on Tuesday 295 new coVID-19 infections, two on the network and seven imported instances. This brings the total number of instances in the country to 53,346.
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