Singapore quarantines more than 1,100 migrant workers after about a dozen cases of COVID-19 were found in a dormitory and was investigating the possibility of reinfections among those who had recovered from the virus.
More than 1,100 bedroom workers will be quarantined at government facilities for 14 days, the bedroom operator said in a letter to customers distributed on social media.
Centurion Corp (CNCL.SI), owner of the Westlite Woodlands bedroom, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Authorities conducted COVID-19 tests on dormitory residents after a worker tested positive during routine testing on Tuesday.
The worker had received a second dose of vaccination a week earlier and his roommate also tested positive.
So far, at least 10 recovered workers have tested positive for COVID-19.
“These cases were immediately isolated and forwarded to the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) to investigate possible re-infection,” the labor ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.
A Reuters reporter saw about ten buses lined up near the bedroom precinct on Thursday and pulled dozens of men out of the complex.
The bulk of Singapore’s more than 60,000 COVID-19 cases occurred in dormitories housing tens of thousands of low-wage workers mostly from South Asia, leading to premises closures last year.
Singapore has largely controlled the virus locally and has also deployed vaccines. More than 10 cases were last reported in a single day among dormitory residents in September, with hardly any new infections in recent months.
The health ministry has said earlier that vaccines were effective in preventing symptomatic diseases, but more research needed to be done on whether they also prevented subsequent transmission.
Concerns have been growing about new variants of the virus and the effectiveness of existing vaccines against them.
While the potential for reinfection exists, these cases came earlier than expected, said Hsu Li Yang, an infectious disease expert at Singapore National University.
Dormitory workers are still mostly separated from the rest of the population, usually only allowed to leave their residence to work.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s transport ministry said it hoped an air travel bubble with Hong Kong would start soon, but no date had yet been set. Read more
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