Community Cases Now Count Work Permit Holders Living Outside Dorms, As Their SHNs Expired

Work Permit Holders Living Outside Dormitories Now Considered In Community Cases

By now, Singaporeans are already familiar with Covid-19 terminology in daily Covid-19 case updates.

New patients are typically distinguished as:

• Imported
• Community
• Work Permit holders in dormitories
• Work Permit holders outside dormitories.

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However, Stay-Home Notices (SHNs) issued to Work Permit holders living outside dormitories have since expired.

For illustration purposes only
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Therefore, ‘community cases’ are now taking into account Work Permit holders not living in dorms.

Community cases now count work permit holders outside dormitories

On 18 Apr, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) issued SHNs to migrant workers in the construction sector, valid from 20 Apr to 4 May.

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Eventually, the government extended this duration until 18 May, after seeing the worrying rise in cases among migrant workers.

On Wednesday (21 May), the Ministry Of Health (MOH) notes that workers have since completed their SHNs in a footnote of their Covid-19 case updates.

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Hence, they decided to do away with one of the categories.

While Work Permit holders residing in dorms are still sorted separately, those residing outside dormitories are now considered under ‘community cases’

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570 cases yesterday, 8 are community

Singaporeans might notice that this new definition took effect yesterday. You can see an example here:

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Out of 570 Covid-19 cases detected in Singapore, 8 are classified as community cases, 5 of whom are Work Permit holders not living in dorms.

Do note the change in future MOH updates

This minor change in format is something Singaporeans need to get familiar with.

Hence, do take note of the format and definition change while reading MOH’s Covid-19 future case updates.

Featured image adapted from Foreign Policy.