SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) have apologised for an administrative error that led to a migrant worker being informed of his positive Covid-19 test result three weeks after he was swabbed.

The migrant worker, who is a resident at Toh Guan Dormitory, had tested for Covid-19 on June 22, but was informed that he tested positive for the disease by the authorities only on July 13.

The incident was made known to the public by the worker’s employers, Ms Tsjin Chandra Dolly and Ms Kelly Soh, who made two separate Facebook posts about the issue earlier this week.

In their posts, the two women also said that as of July 15, the worker still continued to live in the same room with his 11 other roommates after his positive test.

This was despite being informed by MOH on July 13 that the ministry required 24 hours to arrange for the worker to be moved out of the dormitory.

The employers were later told that the multi-ministry task force handling Singapore’s response to the disease outbreak would take care of the matter.

In a joint statement on Sunday (July 19), both ministries said the worker was tested as part of a survey. In such an exercise, several swab tests are pooled together and tested as a group to assess the extent of the spread of the infection in the dormitories.

MOH and MOM clarified that the survey tests are separate from individualised testing, and cannot be used for the clearance of the workers.

The worker and his 11 roommates had been selected for the survey test, along with some other residents in the dormitory, said the authorities, and they all tested positive for Covid-19.

However, an administrative error had occurred and the team conducting the survey realised that the swab test conducted for the worker was an individualised test rather than part of the pooled survey.

That was why the worker was informed three weeks after his Covid-19 test that he was positive for the infection, the authorities said.

The worker has recovered from the infection and did not display any symptoms.

“We apologise for the error and consequent delay in conveying the test results to (the worker) and to his employer. We have since reached out to the employer to explain the situation,” they said.

However, MOH and MOM said the error “does not change or impact the overall procedure” of the clearance process being conducted in Toh Guan Dormitory, which is conducted through a series of serology, survey tests and individual polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests — the testing method currently used for Covid-19 in Singapore.

Appropriate isolation periods were also carried out between tests, said the authorities.

They added that the error also has “no impact on the appropriateness of the clearance strategy for the dormitory, nor the treatment and care of all the workers at Toh Guan Dormitory”, including the worker and his roommates.

“Throughout this period, all 12 workers continued to be cared for in their rooms… their health was monitored by medical staff with regular pulse oximeter readings, temperature readings and symptoms checks.”

MOM and MOH added that the workers involved in the incident were well throughout and did not exhibit any acute respiratory infection symptoms.

As part of the clearance process, all residents in the dormitory — including the 12 workers — were tested for Covid-19 from the end of June.

From these tests, the authorities found that among the worker’s 11 roommates, seven had old infections and had already recovered from the disease, three had recent infections and have been transferred to a community care facility, and one worker was not infected.

Written by: Tessa Oh
Source: Today Online
Published on 20 July 2020
Link: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/mom-moh-apologise-administrative-error-3-week-delay-informing-worker-he-had-covid-19