COVID-19 : Singapore gazetted forth foreign worker dorm as isolation area

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) has gazetted another foreign employee dormitory as an isolation area, bringing the area number to four.

In its notice seen in the Government Gazette, MOH stated that "the foreign employee dormitory known as Sungei Tengah Lodge is declared to be an isolation area for the purpose of preventing the spread or possible outbreak of the infectious disease COVID-19."

The notice was first published in the Government Gazette's website on April 8 at 11.45 pm.

At Sungei Tengah Lodge, two blocks - 506 and 512 - are specifically put under isolation.

In its website, Sungei Tengah Lodge said it is the largest purpose-built dormitory in Singapore with 10 blocks of 13-storey residential blocks that can house 25,000 workers.

As at 12pm Wednesday, 11 additional cases were linked to the cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge, which has a total of 29 confirmed cases now.

Three other isolation areas - S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, Westlite Toh Guan Dormitory and Toh Guan Dormitory - have a combined of 179 positive cases.

Apart from the four isolation areas, there were five other dormitories already identified as clusters.

The republic has a total of 43 dormitories that able to house about 200,000 foreign workers.

Meanwhile, updating on the first three isolation areas, the republic Ministry of Manpower said the areas continued to improve with the Inter-Agency Taskforce further streamlined mealtime routines and stepped up on the upkeep of cleanliness. - BERNAMA