[ad_1]
Workboats gather to honk their horns during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Singapore on May 1, 2020 in this still image from a social media video. (Tan Sze Liang Drilling Rig Inspector / via Reuters)
Singapore is moving migrant workers who have recovered from the coronavirus to two cruise ships as part of efforts to reduce the spread of the disease within workers’ dormitories, which have seen an increase in infections.
The city-state managed to keep the Covid-19 outbreak under control in the early stages, but it faces a second wave of rapidly moving cases, with the vast majority of new infections in sprawling dorm complexes housing workers. migrants, many of them under construction. South Asian workers.
In an attempt to reduce the risk of infection in crowded dormitories, authorities have moved workers to other sites, including military barracks and empty apartment blocks.
A group of workers boarded the SuperStar Gemini, a medium-sized cruise ship, on Wednesday, and another ship, the SuperStar Aquarius, is set to receive more after undergoing evaluations by government agencies, the Singapore Tourism Board said Friday. .
Together, the ships can accommodate up to 2,000.
Cruises have been the site of massive outbreaks during the pandemic.
On the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that docked in Yokohama, Japan, officials opted to carry out a much-criticized on-board quarantine that they argued would limit infections, but more than 700 people eventually contracted the virus and 13 died.
To reduce the risk of infection, workers are housed in double rooms with en-suite bathrooms and are told to follow safe distancing measures, the tourism board said, adding that food is individually packaged and hung outside the cabins. .
The operator of the ships, Genting Cruise Lines, said that no cases of coronavirus have been reported in any of its ships and that it has a “healthy flow of fresh air” in all its ships.
Singapore has reported 17,101 cases and 15 deaths.
[ad_2]
