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A rights group has said it is "unsurprised" after it was revealed almost half of Singapore's migrant workers have been infected with Covid-19 in the past nine months. Men look out from a dormitory in Singapore used by foreign workers. The building was made an isolation area to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in April. Photo: AFP New data shows that 152,000 foreign workers - 47 percent - have been infected. Without counting the migrant workers, fewer than 4000 people have tested positive in Singapore. The men, the majority of whom live in large dormitories where several men share a room amid cramped facilities, have essentially been quarantined from the rest of the population since cases exploded in April.
Text Size: A+ Singapore: Serology testing has revealed nearly half of the 323,000 migrant workers living in Singapore dormitories were infected with Covid-19, far higher than the official tally and indicating the virus spreads widely among people who may not have any symptoms. The city-state has reported more than 54,500 infections in dormitories since the pandemic began, making up more than 93% of all confirmed cases. Another 98,289 workers were found positive through serology testing — which identifies those who had been infected in the past — contributing to an overall prevalence rate of 47%, according to a statement by the Ministry of Manpower on Monday. The finding is further proof that Covid-19 infection is vastly under-detected across the board, and reflects the prevalence of the virus in tightly-spaced worker accommodations. In neighboring Malaysia, which supplies about two-thirds of the world’s latex gloves, the government last month imposed mandatory Covid-19 screening for the 1.7 million foreign workers in the country.