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Reuters

Singapore is rapidly building bed space for coronavirus patients in cavernous exhibition halls and other temporary facilities as it faces a surge in cases, mainly among its large community of low-paid migrant workers.
The city state of 5.7 million people has over 12,000 confirmed infections of the virus that causes Covid-19, one of the most in Asia, due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.

One such facility at Changi Exhibition Centre – home to the Singapore Airshow, Asia’s biggest aerospace gathering – could eventually house over 4,000 patients recovering from the disease and those with mild symptoms.
Surreal life in Singapore, from Covid-19 to ‘circuit breaker’
“The entire process of setting up the infrastructure took six days,” Joseph Tan, a member of the organising committee for the temporary facility.
The first patients, mainly from Bangladesh and India, were moved on Saturday into the vast conference hall, partitioned into rooms for eight to 10 people, with metal beds, plastic storage drawers and fans.

Singapore trails only China, India, Japan and Pakistan in Asia for the number of coronavirus infections. More than 10,000 of those infected, some 80 per cent of its total, are foreign workers, many of whom have been placed in “isolation facilities” for people with mild symptoms such as the conference centres.
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Despite the high total of cases, Singapore has reported 12 deaths and 24 people are in intensive care.
Singapore’s young overseas labourers, earning as little as US$15 a day, live in dormitories with bunk-bed accommodation in areas little visited by tourists to the modern city state. Many are under government-ordered quarantines due to mass outbreaks, with workers left inside battling a constant fear of catching the virus.

At the new Changi isolation centre, each room has blood-pressure monitors and other medical equipment for patients to conduct their own health checks three times daily, while remote-controlled robots provide meals and teleconferencing services to reduce contact.
Authorities are also trialling a four-legged robot dog built by Boston Dynamics at the facility, which they said could be used to deliver medicines to patients or take their temperature.
The indoor space can house 2,700 patients, while an ongoing outdoor extension will add another 1,700 beds. A nearby conference centre called EXPO is already housing hundreds of Covid-19 patients.

Around 10,000 healthy workers in essential services have been moved from dormitories into alternative housing, including military camps, converted sports halls and accommodation ships for offshore workers, authorities say. Rows of white huts are also being hurriedly assembled at the Tanjong Pagar shipping-container port. The facility could house up to 15,000 foreign workers, local media reported, but authorities have yet to decide how it will be used.
“We are continuing to explore additional space for various reasons, including facilities for suspect cases or infected workers, and also for workers who are recovering or who have fully recovered,” a spokeswoman for the Ministry of National Development said in an emailed statement, adding that the Tanjong Pagar site was part of that plan.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Inside Singapore’s sprawling coronavirus isolation centre, robots included

A volunteer who provides translation services for migrant workers is pictured on the screen of a ‘telepresence’ robot at Changi Exhibition Centre. Photo: Reuters

A demonstration of ST Engineering's STrobo Tug robots that distribute food to patients at Changi Exhibition Centre which has been repurposed into a community isolation facility that will house recovering or early COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Singapore April 24, 2020. Picture taken April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

A view of beds at Changi Exhibition Centre which has been repurposed into a community isolation facility that will house recovering or early COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Singapore April 24, 2020. Picture taken April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

SPOT, a four-legged robot developed by Boston Dynamics undergoes further testing to deliver medicine to patients, at Changi Exhibition Centre which has been repurposed into a community isolation facility that will house recovering or early COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, during the coronavirus outbreak in Singapore April 24, 2020. Picture taken April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

A view of a medical consultation center at Changi Exhibition Centre which has been repurposed into a community isolation facility that will house recovering or early COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Singapore April 24, 2020. Picture taken April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

As coronavirus cases surge, can Singapore’s health care system handle the pressure?

An ambulance leaves the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, where Covid-19 patients are being treated. Singapore has over 11,000 acute care hospital beds in public and private hospitals. Photo: AFP

Medical staff wearing Personal protective equipment (PPE) wait for patients to be transferred to a temporary hospital as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, in Singapore on April 10, 2020. (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)

A tugboat pulls the Bibby Renaissance floating hotel, meant to house healthy migrant workers, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Singapore, April 11, 2020, in this image taken from an oyster farm in Pulau Ubin and obtained from social media. Courtesy of Sea Farmers at Ubin/Social Media via REUTERS. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT SEA FARMERS AT UBIN. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Migrant workers are pictured outside their dormitory rooms at Cochrane Lodge II, which was declared an isolation area due to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), in Singapore April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

FILE PHOTO: An ambulance exits Westlite Dormitory, one of the two workers' dormitory gazetted as isolation areas to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Singapore April 6, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

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(200128) -- GUANGZHOU, Jan. 28, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Chinese renowned respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan receives an interview with Xinhua in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

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Coronavirus: foreign workers ‘safer in Singapore’ than elsewhere, says minister

The Tuas South foreign worker dormitory in Singapore has been placed under government restriction as preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19. Photo: AFP

Medical sreening takes place at Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Singapore April 7, 2020. Picture taken April 7, 2020. Ministry of Manpower Singapore/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

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Asia

Southeast Asia

Coronavirus


Home of Singapore Airshow now an isolation facility
City state has one of highest caseloads in Southeast Asia



Remote-controlled robots provide meals and teleconferencing services to reduce human contact at the temporary facilities at Changi Exhibition Centre.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Coronavirus Singapore

Singapore

Inside Singapore’s sprawling coronavirus isolation centre, robots included

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Home of Singapore Airshow now an isolation facility City state has one of highest caseloads in Southeast Asia

Home of Singapore Airshow now an isolation facility

City state has one of highest caseloads in Southeast Asia