The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore joined forces with PSA Singapore, Keppel Offshore & Marine, Bibby Maritime Limited and The Ascott Limited, to launch two floating accommodations to host foreign workers.
Specifically, the joint initiative will be used to house healthy foreign workers beginning next week.
The statement highlighted that all foreign workers will be firstly examined, going through the necessary health checks including swab tests before boarding the floating accommodations.
In addition, following the Elevated Safe Distancing Measures put in place for the whole of Singapore, they will also have to follow strict public health measures set out by Ministry of Health, such as minimizing interaction with other occupants.
MPA informs that the essential needs include the delivery of catered meals. In the meantime, a medical facility will be constructed near by, manned by nurses and doctors from Fullerton Healthcare, that will ensure availability of medical support, when needed.
The two floating accommodations will include isolation rooms, while they will also tap on the multi-agency Forward Assurance Support Teams supporting dormitories under the Ministry of Manpower for additional assistance should the need arise.
Overall, the MPA Singapore has issued a circular informing of the medical examination of seafarers and seafarer’s medical certificate, in line with the IMO and ILO guidelines which have been adopted as national requirements for medical examination of seafarers.
