MOH lists 2 spots in Jurong Point visited by infectious patients

The Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday named Jurong Point's FairPrice outlet and Shokutsu Ten Japanese Food Street as public places visited by people with Covid-19 for more than 30 minutes when they were infectious.

It is providing a list of such places for the first time, including the specific times the infectious patients were there.

The ministry said people who were at these locations during those periods should monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit and see a doctor promptly if they develop symptoms.

A confirmed case visited the FairPrice outlet last Wednesday from 4.30pm to 6pm. Last Thursday, a confirmed case also visited the Shokutsu Ten Japanese Food Street @ Jurong Point from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

The locations will be removed if no new cases linked to these places emerge after two weeks - the length of one incubation period.

FairPrice has been “closely monitoring” all staff at its Jurong Point store and no staff member has since been unwell.

Its spokesman said in a statement: “Since the onset of Covid-19, FairPrice has put in place stringent precautionary measures to maintain a safe and clean environment for our staff and customers in accordance with the authorities’ guidelines. 

“We will continue to maintain strict cleaning regimes, especially for high touch surfaces like railings, trolleys, baskets and checkout counters.

All FairPrice staff have been issued with masks, which they are to wear during the course of their work, and they also have their temperature taken at least twice a day.

Hand sanitisers have been made available for use as well. 

This is complemented by other initiatives such as floor markings at checkout queues, in-store posters and announcements, as well as contact tracing efforts.

The spokesman said: “FairPrice continues to work closely with the authorities to protect the well-being of our staff and customers during this circuit breaker period. We take the opportunity to also echo the government’s call on the community to refrain from lingering unnecessarily in public and to quickly purchase their essentials and return home.”

There were 344 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore as of noon yesterday, with the lower number of cases partly due to fewer tests conducted.

The new cases comprise 338 migrant workers living in dormitories, two work permit holders, one permanent resident and three Singaporeans. This brings Singapore's total count to 31,960. This means there were six new community cases yesterday, up from four on Sunday.

Three of yesterday's community cases were picked up during the screening of pre-school staff. One of them was a 25-year-old pre-school employee who went to work at Learning Vision @ NUHS in Lower Kent Ridge Road, while the other two had not gone to work recently.

A fourth case is linked to the CDPL Tuas dormitory cluster, a fifth to the Cassia@Penjuru cluster, while the sixth, a 48-year-old man from China, has been linked to a previous contact but not to any cluster.

There were no new clusters for a second consecutive day.

With 862 more cases discharged yesterday, 49 per cent, or 15,729, of the total Covid-19 patients in Singapore have fully recovered from the disease.

This leaves 16,199 active cases who remain either in hospital or community facilities, of whom eight are in the intensive care unit.

The average number of new daily community cases has risen in recent days, with MOH partly attributing this to active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff. - CLEMENT YONG

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By the numbers

344 New cases

23 Deaths

6 New cases in community

15729 Total recovered

31960 Total cases

607 Total in hospital

862 Discharged yesterday

8 In intensive care unit