Guests at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport who wish to cancel their bookings can do so at no charge, the hotel said after two Covid-19 cases among its staff forced it to close for two weeks.
Those with pre-paid reservations will receive a full refund, it said in a statement to The Straits Times. They will also be given the option of staying in another hotel under its parent, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
A third linked case was confirmed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday, with a special operation under way to test 234 staff working at the hotel.
The latest case is a 20-year-old Singaporean who works at Azur, a restaurant in Crowne Plaza Changi Airport. The man was identified as a close contact of the first case at the hotel, and quarantined on Tuesday. He developed symptoms on Thursday, was swabbed and found in preliminary tests to be positive for the more infectious B117 strain.
MOH said that of the 233 hotel staff who have been swabbed, 129 test results have come back negative. The rest are pending.
The hotel said its current guests will be given the option to move. A spokesman said: "If they prefer to check out before the end of their stay, they will be compensated accordingly." She declined to say how many guests were affected.
The hotel was closed for two weeks starting yesterday as a precaution following the second case announced by MOH on Thursday. That patient is a 43-year-old Malaysian woman who delivers pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests, and works at Azur. She is the second staff member at the restaurant to test positive following a Korean man on Tuesday.
None of the three cases came into contact with diners.
The hotel has stopped accepting new guests. Foreign air crew and guests currently staying there will be checked out progressively. Incoming air crew will be housed at alternative facilities.
Those who have booked rooms using SingapoRediscovers vouchers will be given the option of postponing their stay or moving to another IHG hotel in the city. The spokesman said that restaurant and event spaces will be closed, and deep cleaning is under way.
MOH said it was investigating the three cases, and could not exclude the possibility that trans-missions occurred at the hotel, which was eerily quiet when ST visited yesterday.
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Three cases among hotel staff
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CASE 59028
A Korean national, 24, is the first employee who tested positive. The work permit holder has also preliminarily tested positive for the more infectious UK B117 strain, and is pending further confirmatory tests.
The man, who delivers pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests, works at Azur restaurant. He does not interact with diners.
He tested positive for a pooled swab during rostered routine testing last Saturday, and was tested again on Monday. That same day, he started to develop acute respiratory infection symptoms.
His result came back positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, and he was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
His serological test result was negative, meaning it was likely a current infection.
CASE 59059
The second Covid-19 infected employee, who also works at the Azur restaurant at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, is a 43-year-old Malaysian with the same job scope as the first worker.
She developed symptoms at work on Sunday, and went to a GP on Tuesday.
She tested positive, and was taken to the NCID. Her serological test came back negative, and preliminary investigations showed that she was probably not infected with the B117 strain.
Her earlier rostered routine test was negative.
CASE 59084
The third case is a 20-year-old Singaporean who has the same job scope at Azur as the previous two cases. He was identified as a close contact of the first case and was quarantined. He developed symptoms on Thursday, and has also preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain, pending confirmatory tests. His serological test was negative. His earlier rostered routine tests were also negative.
Adeline Tan
Guest Lee Jia Yi, 24, told ST she decided to check out earlier after learning of the second case. She had been staying at the hotel with two friends to celebrate a birthday.
She said: "We were a little concerned when we knew about the first case on the day that we checked in. We found out about the second case on Thursday night through the news and got a little more worried."
