SINGAPORE - A 24-hour quick response e-mail address, informational videos in languages like Bengali, Tamil and Mandarin, posters on good hygiene practices at dormitories and working with partners to give regular briefings on the ground.

These are some of the several measures the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has been taking to reach out to the migrant worker community during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, a senior official shared on Thursday (March 5).

Speaking to reporters at an outreach session at a Tuas workers' dormitory, Mr Tan Fang Qun, director of planning and organisation development at MOM's foreign manpower management division, said the measures were introduced to reassure workers and employers on the ground.

"We understand that, given the uncertainty and the evolving Covid-19 situation, workers, employers and dormitory operators may be concerned about the situation," said Mr Tan.

For example, in early February, the ministry set up the mom_qops@mom.gov.sg e-mail address to deal specifically with coronavirus-related queries by employers and workers. It is manned by about five MOM officers, 24 hours a day.

In some cases, the MOM would respond "immediately" if the request was urgent, said Mr Tan, for example if a worker could not get food while complying with the stay-home notice.

A turning point was Singapore's 42nd case of Covid-19, a 39-year-old Bangladeshi worker who tested positive for the disease on Feb 8 - a day after the nation raised its disease outbreak response to orange.

Workers - especially those from the Bangladeshi community - were anxious, with panic fuelled by false reports that their home country would start banning returning travellers from Singapore.

To ensure that accurate information reached the workers and to answer questions, the MOM worked with the Migrant Workers Centre to disseminate information and dispel rumours on the ground.

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It also created videos in workers' native languages, including Mandarin, Bengali and Tamil, and posted them on its YouTube channel and shared them through WhatsApp and other mediums.

In one of them, for example, the National University Hospital's Dr Ashif Chowdhury explains in Bengali the symptoms of Covid-19, what one should do if feeling unwell, and the importance of observing personal hygiene to prevent its spread.

Similar information has also been distributed through the form of posters and information booklets at the dormitories. With the information push, "the workers are actually more informed (and) more confident of the situation here in Singapore", said Mr Tan.

The MOM has also been working with foreign worker dormitories to ensure precautionary measures are put in place.

At CDPL (Tuas) Dormitory, for example, about 40 workers, as of Thursday, were serving their stay-home periods in a segregated part of the dormitory, where they are provided with the basic necessities in a well-ventilated area.



A worker under stay-home notice resting in a segregated part of the dormitory. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG



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The dormitory's general manager Mr Calvin Lim said the dormitory has tripled its cleaning routine to three times a day, with special attention paid to key touch-points like the turnstiles at the entrance, hand rails and lift buttons.

Leisure areas like the recreation room have also been temporarily closed, while workers were told not to engage in contact sports - though they are not prevented from gathering in open spaces on the dormitory's grounds.

The MOM's Mr Tan shared that these measures are on top of checks that the ministry has conducted on workers that were serving leaves of absence or stay-home notices. The checks are both to ensure they comply with rules and to check on the workers' well-being.