The Government will be stepping up efforts to deal with the growing Covid-19 infections in the foreign worker dormitory clusters.
This was announced by both National Development Minister Lawrence Wong and Manpower Minister Josephine Teo during the Multi-Ministry Taskforce Press Conference held on 9 April 2020.
As of 12.00pm today, there have been 287 new Covid-19 cases here, of which 116 cases were from the S11 dormitories.
Mr Wong said: “We need a different strategy, a dedicated strategy for our foreign worker dormitories because there is greater spread of the virus in these dormitories…
“And that is why at the Taskforce level, we’ve decided to put in more resources to set up a dedicated Taskforce focusing on the foreign worker dormitories, enlisting resources from the whole of government, including the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF).”
Mrs Teo elaborated on the formation of Forward Assurance Support (FAS) Teams – a product of an interagency joint task force that has been operationalised since Monday, 6 April 2020.
Comprising officers from either the SAF or SPF, and further supplemented by officers from MOM, the FAS Teams are tasked to work with dormitory operators to change the current dormitory management model they have in place.
“The primary objective of these FAS Teams is to ensure the well-being, health and safety of the workers,” said Mrs Teo.
This includes changes to meal preparations, maintenance of hygiene amenities and overall cleanliness management.
The Government is also looking at reducing the density of the foreign worker dormitories by activating alternative accommodation sites.
For workers who are not sick and in essential services, the Government plans to prioritise these workers, to have them moved out as soon as possible.
Mr Wong said that they have activated a few alternative sites including SAF military camps, Changi Exhibition Centre, offshore Floatels, as well as a few vacant HDB blocks.
