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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Weeks after two of his roommates were diagnosed with COVID-19, Mohamad Arif Hassan says he is still waiting to be tested for the coronavirus. Quarantined in his room in a sprawling foreign worker dormitory that has become Singapore’s largest viral group, Arif says he is not overly concerned that neither he nor his other eight colleagues have symptoms.
Still, the 28-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker cannot be blamed if he was more than a little concerned.
Infections in Singapore, a prosperous Southeast Asian city-state of less than 6 million people, have increased more than a hundredfold in two months, from 226 in mid-March to more than 23,800, the most in Asia after China. , India and Pakistan. Only 20 of the infections have resulted in deaths.
About 90% of Singapore’s cases are linked to crowded foreign worker dormitories that were a blind spot in government crisis management. The Arif dormitory complex, which has 14,000 beds, represents 11% of all infections, with more than 2,500 cases.
This second massive wave of infections caught Singapore by surprise and exposed the danger of overlooking marginalized groups during a health crisis. Despite warnings from human rights activists since February about the crowded and often unhealthy living conditions of the dormitories, no action was taken until the cases rampant spread last month.
Singapore’s costly oversight was also an important lesson for other countries in the region with large migrant populations. Neighboring Malaysia recently announced mandatory coronavirus testing for its more than 2 million foreign workers after dozens were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The mistake highlighted Singapore’s treatment of its large population of low-wage foreign workers, who play an integral role in the economy but live on the sidelines in conditions where social distancing is impossible. The misjudgment was also an embarrassment to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government ahead of early general elections in the coming months that are expected to be the last for Lee, who led Singapore since 2004 and plans to withdraw soon.
The Singapore nanny state government, which won worldwide praise for its meticulous follow-up of contacts and evidence in the early stages of the crisis, quickly moved to contain the problem by treating the outbreak in the bedrooms as a separate outbreak from that of the local community, A policy that some say is discriminatory.
On April 7, the government closed schools and nonessential businesses across the island. So-called “safe distancing ambassadors” were recruited to remind people to wear masks and to stay at least a meter away in public places, or to face heavy penalties.
Meanwhile, all the construction sites and dormitories were closed and foreign workers largely confined to their rooms. More than 10,000 foreign workers in essential services were moved to safer places to reduce overcrowding, and the tests were increased to include people without symptoms.
In Arif’s S11 Punggol dorm, advertised as the cheapest in Singapore, police have mounted a 24-hour patrol of the 13 multi-colored apartment blocks located in the northeast of the island.
Arif, who shared a room with 11 other workers, said one of them was transferred to an army camp in early April to help alleviate overcrowding. Soon after, another roommate was hospitalized with a fever, and on April 17 another was isolated with mild symptoms. Both tested positive for the coronavirus.
Arif said the test has not been done yet because probably thousands of residents of his dorm will have to be tested. But he said Singapore’s premier medical facilities comforted him and his relatively low death toll from the virus.
He receives food in his room, free Wi-Fi on his cell phone, and, most importantly, he said the government has promised to pay workers’ wages.
“I am not concerned because the government is taking care of us like Singaporeans,” said Arif, who has lived in Singapore for seven years. “At this time, we take our temperature twice a day, try to stay a meter away, and constantly use hand sanitizer.”
Once belittled as a small red dot on the global map, Singapore has relied on foreign workers to build infrastructure and help fuel its growth in one of the richest nations in the world.
Some 1.4 million foreign workers live in the city-state, representing 38% of its workforce. At least two-thirds are low-wage transient migrants from across Asia doing manual labor that locals avoid, and many work in construction, shipping, maintenance, or maids.
Approximately 250,000 of immigrants live in 43 private bedrooms, mostly tucked away just outside of Singapore’s impressive skyscrapers and luxury shopping malls. Workers sleep in bunk beds in rooms generally full of 12 people, sometimes up to 20, with a minimum required space of 4.5 square meters (48 square feet) per person.
Another 120,000 migrant workers live in shelters turned into factories or temporary facilities at work sites, where conditions are sometimes even more dire.
Most Singaporean immigrants earn between 500 and 1,000 Singapore dollars ($ 354- $ 708) a month.
Since last month, government infection data has separated cases of foreign workers from those of the general population. Although cases continue to increase among foreign workers, they have decreased in the local community. The government plans to gradually reopen the economy on Tuesday before island-wide restrictions end June 1, eager to demonstrate that it has resolved the situation and that the measures have worked.
“The broadest narrative that cannot be missed is the story of two outbreaks in Singapore,” said Eugene Tan, a law professor at the University of Management in Singapore. “The outbreak that Singaporeans need to pay attention to is the local community. The other outbreak of foreign workers is receiving due attention from the government, but it should not be one that Singaporeans are too concerned about. ”
