Officials in Singapore are contemplating using cruise ships as isolation centres for foreign workers, who recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.
The city-state is facing a second wave of infections mostly linked to dorms housing tens of thousands of foreign workers.
Around 60% of the 4,427 people infected on the island stay in dormitories, where mainly South Asian labourers live 12 to 20 in a room, and shared toilets in conditions some workers have said are unsanitary.
“Cruise ships are being considered as they have readily available rooms and en-suite toilets to minimize person-to-person contact,” the city-state’s tourism board said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
It said the measure could be rolled out for workers who have recovered from the coronavirus and tested negative, helping free up space in dormitories. Authorities are also moving some healthy workers from dorms into public housing, military camps and industrial ships used to accommodate offshore staff.
People rarely catch infectious diseases twice as they develop some immunity, medical experts say, though there have been isolated reports of such cases since the pandemic began in China in December.
