Over the past week or so, 3 worker dormitories in Singapore have been declared isolation areas after they emerged as huge Covid-19 clusters.
On Thursday (9 Apr), Sungei Tengah Lodge in Choa Chu Kang was gazetted as an isolation area — the 4th of its kind in Singapore.
To date, 29 Covid-19 cases are linked to the worker dormitory, of which 11 of them were reported on the day when the place was turned into an isolation area.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Sungei Tengah Lodge was officially declared an isolation area at midnight on Thursday (9 Apr).
The move will hopefully help to curb the spread of the new coronavirus and prevent a “possible outbreak”.
The worker’s dormitory, located along Old Choa Chu Kang Road is the “largest purpose-built worker’s dormitory”.
At full capacity, the dormitory can house up to 25,000 residents.
Sungei Tengah Lodge first emerged as a Covid-19 cluster last Saturday (4 Apr).
The cluster has since grown in size over the week and has 29 cases linked to it thus far.
What prompted the decision to isolate the facility could be the sudden spike in confirmed cases on Wednesday (8 Apr).
On the day alone, 11 patients – nearly a third of the people linked to the cluster – were reported.
The duration of isolation wasn’t disclosed but will likely last for 2 weeks, similar to the other workers’ dormitories which were also declared isolation areas.
MS News has reached out to Sungei Tengah Lodge for more information.
3 other worker dormitories were declared isolation areas before this.
Source
Here are the previously gazetted dormitories and the updated number of Covid-19 cases linked to them:
The situation in S11 Dormitory is the most worrying. With 118 cases linked to it, the facility is the largest Covid-19 cluster in Singapore.
The spike in Covid-19 cases linked to these worker dormitories is shocking indeed, to put it mildly.
We hope the residents at the dormitory understand the need for such extreme measures and would bear with it for the time being.
Meanwhile for the rest of us, please adhere to the social distancing measures put in place.
The surge in cases linked to worker dormitories are already worrying enough. Let’s not burden our healthcare system further by continuing with social gatherings — this could lead to new clusters forming if anyone was infected.
Featured image adapted from Sungei Tengah Lodge.
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