Northpoint City is open for business despite being a virus cluster
Business as usual at Yishun mall, albeit with safe distancing measures
It was business as usual yesterday morning at Northpoint City, the first major mall here identified as a Covid-19 cluster.
Most of its eateries, shops selling food items and the supermarket in the sprawling shopping centre in Yishun were open, with shoppers and employees saying they are confident that safety measures are being taken.
The mall, managed by Frasers Property, was identified on Saturday as a cluster of seven cases by the Ministry of Health (MOH).
On April 17, Northpoint City had said three of its cleaners were diagnosed on April 14 and 15 with Covid-19.
It did not give details of the other cases when contacted yesterday.
In a statement, a spokesman said that "Northpoint City will continue to operate with safe distancing measures in place".
He outlined the steps it is taking in view of the latest developments. It will roll out UV-disinfecting mobile robots as "disinfecting and thorough cleaning of the mall" continue. Contact tracing measures using GovTech's SafeEntry app are also being implemented.
"The health and safety of our staff, tenants and shoppers remain our utmost priority. We will continue to work closely with the authorities to ensure effective implementation of the latest measures."
At around noon yesterday, shoppers were filing in and out of the FairPrice supermarket located in the south wing of the mall.
One of the shoppers, Mr Amal Krishnan, 35, told The Straits Times he had read about the cluster in the news only when he was on the way to the mall.
NO INSTRUCTION TO CLOSE
"We heard there were cases before, but we didn't know it was actually a cluster," said the associate director in the banking industry.
"If they're taking precautions, I don't see why we shouldn't come down and buy things," he added.
ST understands the supermarket has not received any instruction from MOH to close, and so operations are continuing.
Employees at eateries and food shops in the mall also told ST they have not been informed of any impending closure.
Smaller malls identified earlier as clusters are Mustafa Centre in Little India and SingPost Centre in Paya Lebar.
Mustafa was closed for two weeks, after it was found on April 2 to have 11 cases. It is believed to have been linked to hundreds of other cases. SingPost did not stop its mall operations. Its cases were confined to its packet-processing facility.
Madam Lee Ai Cheok, 58, who was doing her grocery shopping at the FairPrice supermarket at Northpoint City, said she heard of the news of the cluster but will still continue to shop there. "For me, I do my marketing here usually," said Madam Lee, who lives nearby.
"Also, the mall is so big - I also don't know where exactly is (the cluster)."
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