The Indian High Commission on Friday, April 10, said around 250 Indians in Singapore have tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly half of those infected stays in close contact in the dormitories for foreign workers, the Commission added.
Jawed Ashraf, Indian High Commissioner has said that almost all of the Indians who have the disease are mostly stable or improving, reportedNDTV.
Of the 250 infected Indians, some are permanent residents. Furthermore, nearly 50 per cent of the infected stay in dormitories for foreign workers. In Singapore, migrant workers’ dormitories have emerged as the COVID-19 hotspots.
While Singapore was able to keep infections low during the first wave of coronavirus outbreaks, the country is now battling with an alarming rise in the number of cases including many from the dormitories.
While the first case in the dormitories was reported on March 29, the number has since gone up to 460. Of this, around 200 were reported on Thursday, April 9. With the country starting aggressive testing in the dormitories, the numbers are expected to rise in the coming days.
The country has quarantined over 50,000 workers for two weeks in five dormitories that were declared “isolation areas”. They are being screened and tested. All the workers in these areas are still paid, along with food and other essentials like face masks and hand sanitisers.
“All of us have to be mentally prepared that the numbers in the foreign worker dormitories will continue to rise in the coming days and perhaps even in the coming week or so, this will happen before they start to stabilise,” Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development, who co-chairs the COVID-19 task force, was quoted as saying byThe Straits Times.
“But we do have a comprehensive strategy and measures are in place, and the agencies are now working round the clock to execute and implement them,” he added.
The Minister also urged the public to not be prejudiced against the foreign workers.
“It’s not because of a foreign worker being inherent of higher risk – the risk of infection for the rest of us in the population is the same, regardless of nationality regardless of race,” he said.
Singapore, as of Saturday, April 11, has reported 2,108 confirmed cases of the virus. Of this, 492 have recovered and 7 have died.