42 More Dorms Cleared Of Covid-19, They House About 4,000 Workers

132 Dorms In Total Cleared Of Covid-19, Workers Can Resume Work Necessary Preparations

As the nation aims to gradually recover from the Covid-19 outbreak, one of the main areas of concern is the infections in our migrant worker dormitories.

The past few days have seen a steady fall in the number of daily cases in dorms, which is an encouraging sign as we move into Phase 2.

Better still, we’ve been quickly clearing dorms across the country of the virus, with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announcing most recently that 42 more dorms have been cleared.

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42 cleared dorms house 4,000 workers

In a media release on Tuesday (16 Jun) as well as a Facebook post on Wednesday (17 Jun), MOM informed the public that the 42 dorms that were cleared recently house about 4,000 workers.

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They comprise:

1. 1 purpose-built dormitory
2. 39 factory-converted dormitories
3. 2 construction temporary quarters

In addition to the 90 dorms that were cleared earlier this month, that makes it 132 dorms in total that have been cleared of Covid-19.

So far, 14 blocks of workers in purpose-built dormitories have recovered.

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Necessary preparations needed to resume work

Though the dorms have been cleared, a few steps still need to be taken by dorm operators, employers and the migrant workers themselves for them to resume work, said MOM.

These 3 steps of necessary preparations are:

1. Staggered pick-up and drop-off timings of workers must be planned by operators and employers
2. Employers must confirm the residential addresses of their workers in MOM’s database
3. Workers need to download the apps FWMOMCare and TraceTogether

67 of the 132 cleared dorms have already finished these 3 steps as of 15 Jun, said MOM.

That amounts to 10,000 workers, some of whom have already resumed work.

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Dorm density can be gradually reduced

MOM also revealed more good news — since more dorms are being cleared and new dorms are becoming available soon, the authorities can start to gradually improve on migrant workers’ living areas so they won’t be so packed.

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This will in turn limit the spread of Covid-19 within these dorms so there’s less chance of the runaway contagion we saw among the workers in the last few months.

However, MOM still urged dorm operators, employers and workers to stay vigilant and follow Safe Working and Safe Living measures.

Singapore’s getting closer to normal

As Phase 2 is in just a few days, the clearing of more dorms is another sign that life in Singapore is getting closer to normal.

As we head out on Friday (19 Jun), let’s remember the contributions of our migrant workers, many of whom are still cooped up in dorms that have not been cleared, or sick and in hospital.

We look forward to all the dorms being cleared soon.

Featured image adapted from Facebook.