Now, despite his building projects being delayed, the company has to continue paying full salary to his workers and provide alternative accommodation, food and other necessities including internet access.More worryingly, Ko is not sure when his company can start working again. “The dorm issue needs to be solved so workers can go back to work,” he says. One thing for sure though. Once the health crisis blows over, Ko says the workers and dorms will have to practise good hygiene and the dorms have to be cleaned regularly to prevent a similar outbreak.
SINGAPORE (May 10): Lewis Ko works at his father’s construction company that has built condos for some of Singapore’s largest developers. However, business has come to an abrupt standstill after the government ordered work at all construction and renovation work in the city state to stop from April 7 after a serious outbreak of Covid-19 among migrant workers living in purpose-built dormitories (PBDs).Ko’s father employs more than 300 workers, out of which 120 were housed at Dormitory@Punggol.
Since the outbreak, four have contract-ed the virus although one has since recovered.“The feedback on living conditions at the dorm wasn’t bad,” Ko says, “but we started to worry after Lunar New Year because of the isolated cases. We tried to control the outbreak and a lot of contractors were taking precautionary measures,” he recalls.
