SINGAPORE, May 10 — Basement 2 of Changi Airport Terminal 3 will be closed to the public temporarily from Monday (May 10), as the airport steps up measures following the discovery of eight Covid-19 cases at the airport in recent days.
Meanwhile, all workers in Terminals 1 and 3, as well as in Jewel Changi Airport, will undergo a mandatory Covid-19 test starting May 9, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a press release on Sunday.
The “special testing operation” will see about 9,000 workers getting tested, CAAS and CAG said. Terminal 2 is currently not in operation.
The authorities described the occurrence of eight Covid-19 cases at Changi Airport over the last 10 days as “worrying”. “While 92 per cent of frontline aviation workers have been vaccinated, the risk of infection remains,” CAAS and CAG said.
Apart from the testing of workers, all vaccinated frontline airport workers who have earlier been placed on a 28-day rostered routine testing cycle will now be placed on a 14-day cycle.
CAAS and CAG said that Terminal 3 Basement 2 is of particular concern as several of the Covid-19 cases had visited outlets there.
Staff working in food and beverage (F&B) and retail outlets there will need to be tested negative before the outlets are allowed to reopen.
When reopened, all F&B outlets in Terminal 3 Basement 2 will only be allowed to provide take-aways to airport staff.
Apart from these measures, the main cleaning contractor for Terminal 3 will be placed on a safety time-out for 14 days from May 10, following the detection of four Covid-19 cases among its cleaners.
During this period, the contractor will be required to conduct a full safety review, among other things.
The airport’s main security service provider, which has two infected staff, will also be stepping up its safe management measures.
Separately, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it is adopting additional precautionary measures at the seaport following the detection of four infected workers in 10 days.
Two of the positive cases are “lashing workers” who worked in Pasir Panjang Terminal. Both had been vaccinated.
The third and fourth cases involve a trailer truck driver and an operations assistant.
Following this, special testing operations had been conducted on close to 4,000 port workers. As of 3pm on Sunday, 2,750 have been tested negative.
MPA said the additional measures include increasing the frequency of rostered routine testing of frontline dormitory workers from every 14 days to seven days. This applies to both vaccinated and unvaccinated workers.
These measures aside, the authorities will also embark on a push to vaccinate medically eligible workers, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post.
Over 95 per cent, or 43,100, of higher-risk workers have received vaccinations, he said, but “recent infections have shown that non-frontline workers can also be at risk”.
“A lot is at stake if our seaport and airport cannot function,” he said.
“One clear implication is our supply lines, and future survival of Changi Airport.” — TODAY
