You’d know by now that if not for dormitory-related cases, we won’t be seeing 3-digit growth of new COVID-19 cases daily.
Which is why the authorities are stepping in to help manage the dormitories and to bring the situation under control.
But when the people within the dormitories are not helping?
Then there’s no help for them.
24 Work Pass Workers Banned from Working in S’pore After Gathering in a Near Their Dormitory
In Singapore, 7 dormitories have been gazetted as isolation areas.
They are
- S11 Dormitory @ Punggol with 365 cases
- Westlite Toh Guan dormitory with 76 cases
- Toh Guan Dormitory with 45 cases
- 2 blocks in Sungei Tengah Lodge with 80 cases
- Tampines Dormitory with 51 cases
- 6 blocks in Acacia Lodge with 15 cases
- 6 blocks in Cochrane Lodge with 32 cases
When that happened, people in these dormitories are essentially quarantined.
Other dormitories have cases as well but they’ve not been gazetted as isolation areas.
Other than dormitories, the authorities are also stepping up to inspect factory-converted dormitories—dormitories that are smaller and are partially converted into living quarters.
These are more of these FCDs in Singapore: according to the MOM website, there are 43 registered dormitories, and for FCDs, there are many more—so many that MOM has inspected more than 600 factory-converted dormitories located at Sungei Kadut, Tuas and other places across Singapore in the last few days.
And there are another 600 FCDs for them to inspect.
Over in one of them, MOM found something so disturbing, they’ve taken the drastic action of revoking all their work permits and barring them from working in Singapore forever.
24 of these work permit holders were caught eating, drinking and gathering in groups in the vicinity of Tuas View Square, a factory-converted dormitory.
As you probably would know, everyone, including Singaporeans, can’t gather outside, much less drink and eat together in a group.
Conditions of Factory-Converted Dormitories (FCDs)
So how’s the condition of these smaller dormitories?
According to MOM, “the vast majority of the FCDs had instituted safe distancing measures and health checks for their residents. The dormitory residents also had no well-being or salary issues.”
57 of the 600 FCDs they inspected had minor lapses, with the most common issue being a lack of sick bays or isolation areas.
They added, “The cleanliness levels of some of these FCDs were also found to be unacceptable. The operators have been instructed to rectify the issues immediately.”
They would have completed the inspection of the other 600 FCDs within two days.
In the meantime, let this be a lesson to everyone: don’t gather. Stay at home.
We’re already 7 days into this CB period that’s already pretty CB period.
