Singapore Changi Airport has updated their safety measures after 10 workers were tested positive for COVID-19, out of nearly 19,000 workers tested. From May 2021, the airport is implementing stricter cohorting arrangements for airport workers. These include separate dining and rest areas for different groups of airport workers and ringfencing higher risk work teams from mingling with other work teams.
Besides segregating arriving passengers to minimize interactions, which has been in place since March 2020, the airport is also augmenting our testing regime for arriving passengers and airport workers.
Changi Airport PTBs and Jewel will remain closed to members of public till the end of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) period, June 13, 2021. The airport remains open for air travel.
From May 20, 2021, all arriving passengers from very high-risk countries/regions must undergo on-arrival Antigen Rapid Tests (ART), on top of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. While an ART is less sensitive than a PCR test, it provides an additional layer of screening. The quicker turnaround time of an ART compared to a PCR test will allow for public health actions to be taken more quickly for persons who test positive by ART.
From May 23, 2021, airport workers in higher risk roles will be required to take an additional ART between their 7-day rostered routine tests.
From May 9 to May 20, 2021, close to 19,000 frontline workers and office workers in the Changi Airport Passenger Terminal Buildings (PTBs) and Jewel Changi Airport (Jewel) were tested for COVID-19 as part of a special testing operation to quickly detect, isolate and treat any potential COVID-19 cases in the airport community.
Allworkers at Changi Airport Terminal 1 and Jewel have tested negative for COVID-19; ten workers from Terminal 3 (T3) were tested positive. Out of an abundance of caution, all airport workers who were working around T3 Basement 2 who had tested negative for COVID-19 in their first test, have been rostered to take an additional COVID-19 test since May 20, 2021 – these results are pending.
As of May 20, 2021, 43 airport workers, including the 10 tested positive for COVID-19 from the special testing operation, have been tested positive for COVID-19. The 33 other airport workers who have been tested positive for COVID-19 were detected while serving Quarantine Orders, through earlier Rostered Routine Testing, through the Ministry of Health’s (MOH’s) voluntary testing operation for visitors to T3, or upon seeking medical treatment from a General Practitioner. Most of these cases were detected early – cases peaked around May 13, with very few cases among airport workers subsequently. None of the cases are in serious condition, require oxygen or are in the Intensive Care Unit.
Phylogenetic testing results for an initial batch of COVID-19 positive airport workers were found to be similar and of the B1617 variant, indicating that they originated from a common source. Preliminary investigations indicate that the initial transmission could have occurred through an airport worker who was assisting a family from South Asia, who arrived in Singapore on April 29, 2021 and were subsequently found to be positive for COVID-19 through their On-Arrival Tests. Further investigations by MOH and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) are ongoing.
