Singapore airport tightens measures after COVID-19 outbreak

Sats

24/05/2021 13:44

SINGAPORE, May 24 (Reuters) - Singapore's airport said on
Monday it was stepping up measures to keep out the coronavirus,
including further segregating arrivals and about 14,000 workers
into different risk zones, after it became the country's largest
active COVID-19 cluster. 
    The Changi airport cluster, which involves over 100 cases,
may have initially spread through a worker who helped an
infected family arriving in the country, according to
authorities. Some of the cases included the B.1.617 variant
first detected in India.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2N82K5   
    Workers in the highest risk zone - the terminal piers,
arrival immigration hall and baggage claim - will be vaccinated,
segregated from other staff, given full protective clothing and
subject to enhanced testing, the airport operator said in a
statement. 
    Passengers from very high-risk countries will be escorted
through immigration to their quarantine facilities without going
through the other terminals, it said.
    Authorities have been criticised on the internet and social
media for not introducing such measures earlier given the
international impact of highly contagious variants. 
    Singapore's Health Minister Ong Ye Kung this month said
airport staff who received travelers from high-risk countries
may have infected others in the airport's food outlets.
    The airport outbreak is part of a resurgence of infections
in Singapore, which reported 24 local cases on Monday, that
follows months of reporting few or no local cases each day. 

 (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by
Martin Petty)
 ((aradhana.aravindan@thomsonreuters.com;))