The government will arrange for hotel rooms, transport from the airport to hotels, and meals for Singaporeans and Singapore Residents who return from the U.K. and U.S. and have to serve their Stay-Home notice (SHN) from March 26.

Upon arrival, transport will be arranged for the returnees from the airport to a designated hotel. Each returnee will be given their own hotel room and meals will be provided for the entire 14-day duration of their SHN.

These new arrangements were announced by Minister for National Development and co-chair of the Multi Ministry Taskforce Lawrence Wong Lawrence Wong on March 24, as part of additional efforts to prevent imported cases from infecting their families and triggering community spread.

Previous SHN arrangement

Previously, returnees on SHN were required to stay put in their places of residence - usually their own homes - for 14 days, and are not allowed to leave even to buy daily necessities.

So far, while some SHN-serving returnees had tested positive for the virus, they did not go on to infect their family members, said Wong.

"They are truly self-isolating at home, and even keeping a distance from their family members, which is good," said Wong, who remarked that the current arrangement had worked relatively well.

"But we understand that family members are still worried, Singaporeans are still worried because of the large numbers (of imported cases), and there is always a risk that infection can happen to a next person, to somebody in close proximity."

Additional step

Thus, to allay the worries of family members and fellow Singaporeans, the government has taken this additional step so that family members do not need to fetch returnees from the airport, nor live together with them during their SHN.

For all returnees who are already in Singapore serving their SHN at home, they can opt to apply to be moved to this dedicated facility if their current arrangement is not conducive, said Wong.

Returnees from the U.K. and U.S. were singled out as these two countries are seen to have "higher risk," said Wong.

These measures took effect for all UK/US returnees from March 25, 2020, at 11.59pm.

Top Photo by Marcin Nowak and Bryce Barker via Unsplash