Hawker centre closed after worker linked to KTV cluster tests positive
A hawker centre at Block 75 Lorong 5 Toa Payoh underwent deep cleaning yesterday morning after a stall assistant was understood to have visited a KTV lounge over the weekend and tested positive for Covid-19.
The Straits Times understands the stall assistant is linked to the rapidly growing KTV lounge cluster, which now has 88 cases.
A crew of six people wearing personal protective equipment spent about an hour spraying disinfectant and wiping down tables and chairs at the 36-stall hawker centre managed by NTUC Foodfare.
Notices put up around the hawker centre by Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council said it would be closed until further notice, with deep cleaning and disinfection to be carried out yesterday and today.
The town council did not respond by press time to queries about when the hawker centre would reopen.
Stallholders said they were notified about the positive case at about 3pm on Wednesday.
PACK UP
They were issued with 14-day quarantine orders and given three hours to pack up and go home, said Mr Tan Boon Chuan, 50, secretary of the hawker centre's stallholders' association.
"It was very sudden and the whole hawker centre was a mess. Everyone was anxiously packing up," Mr Tan, who runs a dessert stall there with his wife, said in Mandarin.
He had to throw away all of the ingredients he had prepared for the day and would likely have to dispose of the rest he had to leave behind at his stall.
"We are just waiting to be tested," Mr Tan said yesterday, adding that he and most of the hawkers are fully vaccinated.
Swab testers visited the homes of some of the stallholders yesterday to test them for Covid-19.
Madam Ang Goon Lay, a 65-year-old drinks stall owner at the hawker centre, tested negative after taking an antigen rapid test, said her daughter, Ms Lim Jia Hui.
The 27-year-old said her mother, who is fully vaccinated, is concerned about the loss of income as she is allowed back at work only on July 25.
It is not clear whether the hawker centre will remain shuttered after it is cleaned as the stallholders serve their quarantine.
Mr Tan is hopeful that the hawker centre can reopen soon as the positive Covid-19 case was absent from work this week.
He said the stall assistant who tested positive had allegedly visited a KTV lounge on Sunday. The man, who is said to be an assistant at Fang Yuan Satay, did not turn up on Monday and went to see a doctor on Tuesday after feeling ill, Mr Tan added.
"It should not affect our hawker centre because he did not come into contact with the people here (while he was sick)," the stallholder said.
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