Debated in Parliament on 25 Feb 2021.
Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for National Development whether the Government will consider implementing a tiered pricing schedule, aligned with tiered Stay-Home Notice Dedicated Facilities so as to offer inbound travellers a choice of accommodation that is commensurate with their affordability and level of comfort.
Mr Speaker, Sir, the current Stay-Home Notice Dedicated Facilities (SDF) system was set up in March 2020 to isolate returning travellers until they were found to be free of COVID-19. Protecting the community from imported cases is our key priority, and multiple agencies and hotel partners work closely together to implement health, security, transport and accommodation arrangements to do so. The system has served about 190,000 travellers since its formation.
Travellers are “bubble wrapped” from the moment that they arrive at the checkpoints, all the way to the SDFs, with strict infection prevention and control measures maintained throughout the process. To minimise operational complexity, travellers are assigned to SDFs when they arrive at the checkpoints. As travellers cannot choose their SDF and the cost structure is largely similar, a standard fee is charged regardless of the SDF that they are assigned to.
At the same time, we recognise that certain travellers may have specific needs. For instance, those who require elderly or disability-friendly facilities, or those travelling with children or minors may require specific room arrangements. We consider appeals on a case-by-case basis, based on the travellers’ financial or personal circumstances.
We understand that travellers would like to have more choice and flexibility for their SDFs. We are constantly reviewing our system and studying ways to provide travellers more options to meet their preferences and budgets, without compromising the safety of travellers, operational staff and importantly, the community.
I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I understand that, operationally, it can be quite complicated to allow the travellers to choose. But I would like to appeal to the Government, given that we have been in this phase for almost a year now and that many families especially those who need to go through the quarantine period, for example, those bringing in foreign domestic helpers, I have had many residents come and appeal, that the cost is really quite significant for the families to bear.
So, I would like to appeal for the Government to really think of a more economical option so that families who do need to go through a quarantine for different reasons, including onboarding of foreign domestic helpers for the care-giving needs, can have a more economical option for them to choose.
Thank you to the Member for her query. As the Member pointed out, it is indeed operationally complex to have the entire system with strict Infection, Prevention and Control measures (IPCs), from the moment the travellers arrive at the checkpoint, how to identify the Persons on Stay-Home Notice (PSHN), to assign them to the SDF, to assign them the transport arrangements to the SDF, managing the PSHNs in the SDF itself, and finally, the in situ exit processes before we release the PSHN. These are complex operations and issues, with many moving parts. That is why we take a lot care to make sure the robust measures are in place.
But we understand the points that the Member has raised, especially when the Member has talked about foreign domestic workers, different circumstances. We will look at those cases on a case-by-case basis, in addition to the present arrangement of having different tiers of SDFs. There is an economy tier catered to many of the profiles or archetypes that the Member talked about – workers from the construction, marine process industries as well as foreign domestic workers. So, we do have different tiers of SDFs for different archetypes of travellers coming in.
At the same time, like I have said, we will look at those issues on a case-by-case basis, and we will continue to refine the system to cater for various flexibilities, without compromising the operational safety of our operational staff and our community
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