Singapore government officials announced plans to to house thousands of migrant workers in floating ‘accommodation vessels’ that are normally used for offshore and marine industry staff.
Tens of thousands of foreign ‘guest workers’, many from South Asia, live in cramped dormitories across Singapore, which have become the biggest source of COVID-19 infections in recent days.
Some of the healthy residents of those facilities are being moved to other sites including military camps, an exhibition center, vacant public housing blocks and the accommodation vessels, dubbed “floating hotels.”
“Each facility can hold a few hundred occupants and can be suitably organized to achieve safe distancing,” Minister of Transport Khaw Boon Wan said, after he visited one of the vessels. They are docked in a restricted area of a port terminal.
Singapore reported 233 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking its total to 2,532, eight of whom have died.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- “Each facility can hold a few hundred occupants and can be suitably organized to achieve safe distancing,” Minister of Transport Khaw Boon Wan said, after he visited one of the vessels.
- Tens of thousands of foreign ‘guest workers’, many from South Asia, live in cramped dormitories across Singapore, which have become the biggest source of COVID-19 infections in recent days.
- Some of the healthy residents of those facilities are being moved to other sites including military camps, an exhibition center, vacant public housing blocks and the accommodation vessels, dubbed “floating hotels.
