Singapore hasn’t minimized testing migrant workers in dormitories, says Gan Kim Yong

Many health experts have lately criticized the Singapore government for decreasing the number of tests done on migrant laborers lessened in the dormitory. However, Gan Kim Yong reassured on 27 April that the testing capacity concerning migrant laborers is around 3,000 per day and has not declined. 

As indicated by CNN, Singapore is home to around 1.4 million migrant workers who have come from South and Southeast Asia in large numbers. These migrants have helped in Singapore’s functioning, e.g., as maids, domestic aides, construction laborers, and unskilled workers. On the other hand, they are the ones who are least paid and most vulnerable individuals in the city. 

In the initial three months of the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore was applauded for its response and possible capacity to contain the disease without utilizing extreme measures. In April, there was a surge in Covid-19 positive cases, and right now, Singapore has detailed 14,951 affirmed cases, 14 deaths, and 1,095 recovered. 

Dale Fisher professor and an Infectious diseases expert at The National University of Singapore, reprimanded Singapore’s administration in an interview with CAN expressing that the disease rate for Covid-19 is so high that there is no compelling reason to test any longer in some dormitories. 

When an individual has a clinical respiratory ailment, that individual is considered to have coronavirus, so those individuals are placed into quarantine directly, he included. There is just no real way to self-quarantine or avoid close contact in dormitory rooms as migrants share one room and one washroom. 

On 27 April, the Health Ministry said an aggregate of 21,000 migrants workers living in one room had been tested since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak. Coronavirus Multi-Ministerial Task Force member Gan Kim Yong responded that it implies that one out of 15 migrant laborers had been tested in the dormitories. 

The authorities began testing and quarantining migrant workers where there were a high number of cases detected; however, we are testing for Covid-19 in other dormitories as well, Gan included.