More foreign workers will be able to visit places in the community

From Dec 3, up to 21,000 fully vaccinated migrant workers will be allowed to leave their dormitories and visit places in the community each week.

This is up from the current limit of 3,000 per week.

They will be able to go wherever they choose during the eight-hour community visits and will not be restricted to Little India or Geylang Serai.

Migrant workers will also be allowed daily visits to recreation centres here, up from thrice a week.

These visits will be extended to eight hours, from four hours now.

Unvaccinated workers will need to take an antigen rapid test before visiting a recreation centre, or use a negative test result from their rostered routine testing.

Those who are vaccinated do not need to get tested beforehand.

There are eight recreation centres islandwide and workers are currently assigned to a fixed one.

From the middle of next month, workers will be allowed to visit any of the eight centres, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng at a press conference yesterday.

Restrictions on migrant workers living in dorms were last eased on Oct 30, when the authorities increased the number of workers allowed to make community visits from 500 to 3,000 per week.

Dr Tan said the pilot scheme, which started in September, has been well received and no infections have been detected among the participants so far.

More than 98 per cent of migrant workers living in dorms are fully vaccinated, and of those eligible for a third booster shot, 81 per cent have taken it, he added.

From now until January, about 61 per cent of fully vaccinated migrant workers will become eligible for the booster.

At the same time, the rate of Covid-19 infections in dorms has fallen over the past two to three weeks, with an effective reproduction rate of 0.9, Dr Tan said.

The seven-day multiple has also been below one, which means the number of cases has been falling.

The vast majority of cases are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and just 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent need to be hospitalised.

"Touch wood, we have not had a single death due to Covid-19 among migrant workers this year," he said.

"Because of that, we were able to, in a very calibrated and careful manner, ensure that as we completed one pilot after another successfully, we could take a bolder step."

Dr Tan said the easing of restrictions will enable workers to meet friends and relatives living in other dorms. The necessary safeguards, such as an additional antigen rapid test before the community visits, will remain in place as a precaution.

He urged dorm operators and employers to support migrant workers so that they are able to fully utilise the community visits.

During the first month of the pilot scheme, only about 700 workers from 30 dorms visited Little India, out of a maximum quota of 2,000 workers.

Dr Tan also called for more support from recreation centre operators and non-governmental organisations. He said the Manpower Ministry is working with them to increase the variety of activities at recreation centres, such as movie screenings and sports games.

Processes are also being put in place to manage a larger number of visits from migrant workers.

Meanwhile, there are now 16 quick-build dorms (QBDs) in 11 locations here, Dr Tan said. These are semi-permanent dorms with improved standards built to reduce the density in existing dorms.

Of the 16 QBDs, four have been repurposed into onboarding centres for workers arriving from overseas.