SINGAPORE: Pest control and officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA) carried out fogging at Simon Place after Singapore’s first Zika cluster this year was detected in the area.

Teams began spraying sidewalks and drains in the area at about 9.30am.

Two locally transmitted cases had been confirmed in Simon Place, near Kovan in Hougang.

Both are from the same household, and neither person is pregnant.

Some residents along Simon Place said they were worried about the situation, as there have already been a number of dengue cases in the area.

Retiree Paramaes Govin, 60, said that three people in her house have gotten dengue over the 27 years she has lived in the area.

“There’s a bad mosquito problem here – the leaves and seeds from the trees fall and clog the gutter,” she said.

But housewife Jessie Tan, 65, said: “I’m not that concerned because we already have pest control spray the garden every two months, and we don’t open the windows at home.”

Residents said that the NEA had visited their homes over the last two days to check for mosquito breeding grounds and hand out small bottles of repellent.

Some are taking extra precautions, such as using mosquito coils, citronella candles, repellent and patches.

Housewife Phang Yok Kuan, 62, said that she would make sure her two grandsons, aged three and five, are protected by repellent before they leave for school each morning.

Aljunied GRC MP Sylvia Lim made a visit to the area yesterday morning as the fogging concluded, and said she would be surveying the area over the coming days.

“Residents living in this area are quite used to clusters of mosquito-borne diseases – in the last few years we’ve had dengue outbreaks, so they already know what to do and how to protect themselves,” she said. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network