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Singapore probing COVID-19 re-infections after cases found in workers dormitory
Authorities had conducted COVID-19 tests on all residents at Westlite Woodlands Dormitory after a 35-year-old worker was found positive on April 20 as part of routine testing.
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An Academy of Medicine staff attends to a migrant worker at a dormitory in Singapore, after nearly 20,000 workers were quarantined, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, April 7, 2020. (REUTERS/MINDEF Singapore/Handout)
S
ingapore's manpower ministry said authorities were investigating the possibility of COVID-19 re-infections among residents in a migrant workers' dormitory, after finding more positive cases in the facility.
Authorities had conducted COVID-19 tests on all residents at Westlite Woodlands Dormitory after a 35-year-old worker was found positive on April 20 as part of routine testing.
The worker had completed his second vaccination dose on April 13. His room-mate also tested positive.
To date, 10 workers who previously showed a positive serology test result were found to be COVID-19 positive. Serology tests indicate past infection.
"These cases were immediately isolated and conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) to investigate for possible re-infection," the manpower ministry said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.
The Straits Times newspaper reported, without citing sources, that plans were now being made to move hundreds of workers to a quarantine facility.
Singapore last reported more than 10 cases among dormitory residents in September, with barely any new infections over the last few months.
The city-state has largely brought the virus under control locally.
The bulk of its more than 60,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, occurred in the cramped dormitories that house mainly South Asian low-wage workers, triggering lockdowns of the facilities.
The workers in the dormitories are still mostly separated from the rest of the population in the city-state, being mainly only allowed out of their residence for work.
