COVID test at Singapore land checkpoints; all cargo drivers tested negative

SINGAPORE: More than 500 cargo drivers have been tested for COVID-19 at both Singapore land checkpoints yesterday with all results turning out negative in the 1-day exercise, according to the republic Ministry of Health's medical services director Associate Professor Kenneth Mak.

Singapore on Thursday announced that it will progressively roll out a compulsory Antigen Rapid Test (ART) at its Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints for cargo drivers and accompanying personnel entering the city-state from 9 am yesterday.

"We will continue to work through our processes to improve them and ensure it is not disruptive to both businesses and drivers for the operations to continue without too much delays at the checkpoints.

"So, this will continue over the next few days and we'll continue to tweak and refine the processes," said Mak at the multi-ministry task force on COVID-19 virtual press conference yesterday.

Mak noted that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) have been working very closely to make sure that they carry out testing operations at both crossings with minimal disruption.

"We do understand the impact that testing can have on the smooth running of immigration and customs operations at the checkpoint itself. So far observations found the operations have been conducted relatively smoothly," he said.

In announcing the matter on Thursday, the republic's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said the new border control measure is aimed at managing the growing risk of imported COVID-19 cases.

As at noon Friday, Singapore has preliminarily confirmed one new case of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection and 14 imported cases, thus, bringing the total number of infections to 59,250.

-- BERNAMA