Changi Airport front-line staff to take ART daily for next 7 days after local Omicron case detected
Front-line airport staff will have to take antigen rapid tests (ART) daily for the next seven days after a passenger service employee tested positive for the Omicron variant of the virus.
This is on top of their routine testing, said the Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Friday (Dec 10), in response to queries from The Straits Times.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said two Covid-19 patients here had preliminarily tested positive for the Omicron variant.
One is a 24-year-old passenger service worker at Changi Airport - the first local case here - while the second is an imported case, MOH said.
Since the emergence of the new variant - which was designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation at the end of November - Changi Airport has stepped up the personal protective equipment requirements for staff handling transfer passengers, CAG said.
It added that the close contacts of the affected worker have been placed under close monitoring.
CAG added: "Stringent safety protocols continue to be in place at Changi Airport for the health and safety of the airport community.
"Staff serving passengers in the transit areas are required to be fully vaccinated, and to don the necessary level of personal protective equipment."
CAG added that staff in close contact with passengers during their course of work undergo rostered routine testing and take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test every seven days.
Other front-line staff, including those who work in the public areas, are required to take an ART every seven days, it said.
It added: "With the evolving Covid-19 pandemic, Changi Airport continues to monitor the situation on the ground closely and adapts its safety measures to protect airport staff. "
The infected employee worked at Changi Airport Terminals 1 and 3. She also worked in the transit holding area, where MOH said she may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries.
She did not work at Terminal 4, where three cases of Omicron infections had visited earlier.
The woman took a Covid-19 test on Dec 8 under the weekly rostered routine testing and her PCR test result revealed traces linked to the Omicron variant, MOH said.
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