Rationale for Different Safe Management Measures for Vaccinated Migrant Workers Living in and Outside of Dormitories
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the rationale for different safe management measures applied to vaccinated migrant workers in dormitories compared to those living in the community. Minister Tan See Leng explained that dormitories are high-risk communal settings where transmission occurs rapidly, necessitating frequent Fast and Easy Testing-Rostered Routine Testing. He highlighted that Safe Living Measures, infection audits, and controlled community visits are implemented to prevent cross-transmission and safeguard the workers' health and livelihoods. Current policies allow up to 3,000 workers to visit the community on weekdays and 6,000 on weekends, while also offering daily access to recreation centres. The Ministry continues to work with community partners to organize social events and will monitor the situation to ease remaining restrictions when it is appropriate.
Transcript
84 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower what is the rationale for having different safe management measures for vaccinated migrant workers living in dormitories and the rest of the population living outside of dormitories.
Dr Tan See Leng: Dormitories are communal settings where transmissions can occur rapidly. As such, dormitory residents are required to be tested more frequently than the general community.
Today, dormitory residents undergo Fast and Easy Testing-Rostered Routine Testing (FET-RRT). We have implemented Safe Living Measures (SLM), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) audits and lower capacity numbers in recreation centres as well as controlled numbers for community visits to dampen the risk and speed of transmission, both within the dormitories and cross-transmission between the community and dormitories. For example, mid-last year, community cases were more numerous than dormitory cases and there was the risk of cross-transmission from the community to the dormitories.
Reducing and managing transmission risk will ultimately help to safeguard the migrant workers’ health and reduce disruption to their ability to work. Many migrant workers have told us that they are concerned about not being able to work if they test positive and need to be isolated.
We have progressively eased the restrictions over time. Migrant workers living in dormitories may visit recreation centres daily and up to 3,000 vaccinated migrant workers may visit the community on weekdays and up to 6,000 on weekends and public holidays. In addition, we are working with community partners, like Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), grassroots organisations, schools and employers to plan and organise regular events and activities for workers in and out of the dormitories. We will continue to monitor the situation and ease restrictions when appropriate.