Changi Airport began a special testing operation yesterday to root out any hidden Covid-19 cases among its 9,000 workers.
Its main cleaning contractor for Changi Airport Terminal 3, Ramky Cleantech Services, will be placed on a safety timeout for 14 days starting today, after four cases were detected recently among its cleaners, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a joint statement yesterday.
Vaccinated front-line airport workers, who were earlier on a 28-day cycle of rostered routine testing (RRT), will now be tested every 14 days instead.
Separately, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said that a testing operation for nearly 4,000 port workers concluded yesterday, after four cases had been detected at the seaport in the past 10 days.
Commenting on the testing operations, Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung said last night that the one-time testing exercise for airport and seaport workers would serve as a reset button.
If any cryptic cases that cannot be traced are picked up, more stringent measures will be put in place. For instance, higher-risk workers who are exposed to seafarers and travellers will be separated from their colleagues, said Mr Ong.
Surveillance measures such as RRT will be carried out more frequently, while the authorities will push to vaccinate the rest of the medically eligible workers at the seaport and airport.
"We need to protect our front-liners in order to protect the rest of Singapore... We will review these measures constantly, to defend and secure our borders," Mr Ong wrote on Facebook.
At Changi Airport, Terminal 3 Basement 2 will be closed to the public from today. The stores and restaurants on other levels of T3 will remain open. Basement 2 of T3 is of particular concern, as several people with infections had visited outlets there. Other than having the outlets deep cleaned, staff working at these places will also need to test negative for Covid-19 before the outlets can reopen to customers.
When they do reopen, they will be allowed to provide take-away orders only to airport staff. Dining in will not be allowed, except in special allocated areas for airport workers who are unable to have their meals at their place of work.
"We will work with affected companies to minimise the impact of these arrangements on their staff and airport operations. Rental rebates will be provided to affected tenants to provide financial support," said CAAS and CAG.
CAG said it will be contacting affected tenants directly. During this period, menus from the affected outlets may not be available on Changi Eats, Changi Airport's food delivery service.
"The occurrence of eight Covid-19 cases at Changi Airport over the last 10 days is worrying," said CAAS and CAG. "While 92 per cent of front-line aviation workers have been vaccinated, the risk of infection remains."
Meanwhile, the MPA said the testing operation for 4,000 port workers included truck drivers, canteen operators and office-based staff. As at 3pm yesterday, 2,750 had tested negative for Covid-19. MPA said it will also speed up the vaccination of maritime personnel. Another 6,000 will be vaccinated in the coming weeks.
