Gaps in safety measures at Jurong Fishery Port will be rectified
Gaps in safe management measures at Jurong Fishery Port (JFP), such as lapses in mask wearing, will be rectified before the port is reopened, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said in Parliament yesterday.
While investigations by the Ministry of Health and the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) are ongoing to determine how transmission took place there, a preliminary review has identified some gaps.
For instance, the humid environment had made it uncomfortable for workers to wear their masks for a prolonged period of time, the minister said.
"This meant a higher propensity for workers to adjust their masks or take them off momentarily," she added, noting that workers could have also taken off their masks when smoking during breaks.
Workers and traders also mixed freely throughout the facility, and some contactless delivery measures were not followed strictly.
Ms Fu said that to date, 76 per cent of workers at the port are fully vaccinated, while 86 per cent have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
"Unfortunately, Covid-19 managed to break through these defences... further spread to the markets and hawker centres through the stallholders who had visited JFP," she added.
These gaps in safe management measures will be addressed before the port is expected to reopen on Sunday, said Ms Fu, adding that the fishery port will go through a second round of cleaning before its reopening.
The SFA will also work with companies to implement a seven-day rostered routine testing (RRT) for all workers at Jurong Fishery Port, and contactless delivery protocols for truck drivers and boatmen will also be stepped up.
Trade visitors who are not on any testing regimes will have to take an antigen rapid test before entering.
There will be more frequent patrols carried out to ensure compliance of safe management measures.
These enhanced safe management measures will also be progressively rolled out to all the other key food facilities, such as Senoko Fishery Port and Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, along with slaughterhouses and pig abattoirs.
As part of efforts to improve the safety at markets, RRT will be carried out for all market stallholders once every 14 days. More quick test centres will be set up and hawkers may also be taught to conduct self-testing.
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