More than 5,500 workers were tested for Covid-19 infection between Apr. 23 and 26, following the recent cluster at Westlite Woodlands Dormitory.

The extensive testing is in addition to the bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) conducted on dormitory residents.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced this today (Apr. 28) alongside other precautionary steps taken to protect workers who are well.

While workers are still permitted to access communal facilities and Recreation Centres within dormitories, their movements will be regulated to prevent the intermixing of workers.

Movement between dormitory blocks are still not allowed and workers have been advised to cease social interactions with others who do not reside in the same room or floor.

Outside dormitories, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has stepped up inspections on Safe Management Measures (SMM) at construction worksites.

MOM: Workers provided mental health care, salaries not affected

MOM also said that 24/7 medical assistance is made accessible to migrants workers.

A set of comprehensive measures have also been put in place to look after the well-being of affected workers. This includes counselling hotlines in migrant workers' native languages, as well as virtual calls and care packs from NGO partners.

The ministry added:

"Affected workers will continue to be paid their salaries for the duration of the quarantine, and their period of absence from work will be treated as paid hospitalisation leave as part of workers' leave eligibility under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act."

MOM: Recovered workers can test positive because of prolonged shedding of viral fragments

As of Apr. 27, the Westlite Woodlands Dormitory cluster comprises seven confirmed cases, of whom five are re-infection cases.

MOH announced last week that recovered workers who have passed 270 days from their date of infection would be subjected to Rostered Routine Testing due to the risk of waning immunity and the threat of new variants.

According to MOM:

"Many recovered workers can test positive because of prolonged shedding of viral fragments from an old infection."

As such, MOM expects a proportion of recovered workers who are tested again to return a positive result on the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test.

Such cases require further clinical assessment over several days to determine if they are old or current infections.

Top image via Jurong Health Campus Facebook page.