I am so ashamed.....
By SHASHANK BENGALI STAFF WRITER
APRIL 14, 2020
5:32 AM
SINGAPORE —
Just weeks ago, Singapore was a coronavirus success story, admired for pinpointing infected patients and isolating their contacts with brisk efficiency, all while causing minimal disruption to an economy that was the envy of Asia.
But the island city-state is now battling to control an enormous outbreak spreading among a population that officials had mostly overlooked: the migrant workers who form the vast but unseen engine of Singapore’s prosperity.
The new wave of infections offers a stark illustration of the continued risks facing one of the world’s most densely inhabited regions — and of the coronavirus’ often disproportionate toll on the poor and marginalized.
COVID-19 cases in Singapore have tripled since the start of the month to more than 3,200, with most of the new infections found in laborers from India, Bangladesh and other countries who live in crowded, airless dormitories on the edges of the modern, manicured city-state they’ve helped build.
The dormitories — where workers often are made to sleep 20 to a room in bunk beds, share kitchens and bathrooms, and enjoy hardly any personal space — have allowed transmission of the coronavirus to explode. Singapore said Tuesday that it had quarantined eight dorms and would lock down dozens of others, effectively confining 200,000 workers to their rooms as authorities ramp up testing and isolate the infected
https://www.latimes.com/world-natio...ronavirus-surges-migrant-workers-in-singapore
By SHASHANK BENGALI STAFF WRITER
APRIL 14, 2020
5:32 AM
SINGAPORE —
Just weeks ago, Singapore was a coronavirus success story, admired for pinpointing infected patients and isolating their contacts with brisk efficiency, all while causing minimal disruption to an economy that was the envy of Asia.
But the island city-state is now battling to control an enormous outbreak spreading among a population that officials had mostly overlooked: the migrant workers who form the vast but unseen engine of Singapore’s prosperity.
The new wave of infections offers a stark illustration of the continued risks facing one of the world’s most densely inhabited regions — and of the coronavirus’ often disproportionate toll on the poor and marginalized.
COVID-19 cases in Singapore have tripled since the start of the month to more than 3,200, with most of the new infections found in laborers from India, Bangladesh and other countries who live in crowded, airless dormitories on the edges of the modern, manicured city-state they’ve helped build.
The dormitories — where workers often are made to sleep 20 to a room in bunk beds, share kitchens and bathrooms, and enjoy hardly any personal space — have allowed transmission of the coronavirus to explode. Singapore said Tuesday that it had quarantined eight dorms and would lock down dozens of others, effectively confining 200,000 workers to their rooms as authorities ramp up testing and isolate the infected
https://www.latimes.com/world-natio...ronavirus-surges-migrant-workers-in-singapore
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