Debated in Parliament on 2 Nov 2020.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Manpower since Phase Two of Re-Opening began (a) what has been the total number of migrant workers who have been issued Stay Home Notices and Quarantine Orders; and (b) whether there have been cases of transmission across groups of migrant workers staying in different locations.
To detect new COVID-19 cases and contain the infections quickly and decisively, we have a multi-layered strategy, of which Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) once every 14 days is a critical part to detect COVID-19 early. These workers come primarily from the construction, marine and process sectors. 98% of workers have been scheduled for RRT, and employers are required to ensure that their workers continue to undergo RRT every 14 days, in order to safeguard their health and that of the wider community. We have also been working with employers, dormitory operators and migrant workers to put in place Safe Living, Safe Working and Safe Rest Day measures to prevent new infections. These measures have been effective in bringing down the number of cases and has kept transmission across dormitories to a minimum.
As workers spend time either at their worksites or in their dormitories, these dormitory, worksite and transport measures are necessary to reduce the risk of transmission. We are very watchful for transmission across dormitories or worksites. So far, we have not detected any cross transmission since migrant workers resumed work from August.
Since dormitories were cleared on 11 August 2020, about 53,000 migrant workers have been issued Stay Home Notices/Quarantine Orders (SHN/QOs). SHN/QOs are issued to contacts of persons who have been tested positive for COVID-19. The duration of SHN/QO is typically two weeks. As expected, in the first round of RRT in August, a number of COVID positive cases were detected resulting in their contacts being placed on SHN/QO. The RRT and SHN/QO process has allowed us to identify these cases early and isolate their contacts quickly, helping to bring down the number of positive cases, which has also correspondingly brought down the number of contacts that need to be placed on SHN/QO. The number on SHN/QO, which includes the contacts of COVID positive cases identified over the past two weeks, has fallen to about 4,000. This is about 1.38% of the workforce living in the dormitories, while the remaining 98.62% are available to continue working safely.
The Ministries, employers, dormitory operators and migrant workers share the same objective – to resume work at the worksites as smoothly as possible while maintaining the health and safety of the migrant workers and of our community. We would like to thank our employers, dormitory operators and migrant workers for their cooperation and remaining vigilant. By working together, we have been able to bring down the number of cases. The incidence rate of COVID positive cases from RRT has fallen from 0.27% in August, to 0.09% in September, and to 0.03% in the first week of October.
PAPERCUTS