SINGAPORE – About 350 released inmates and officers working at the work release centre in Selarang Park Complex managed by the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) have tested negative for Covid-19, after six infections were identified there.

The released inmates, who are referred to as supervisees, are serving the tail-end of their sentence in the community on community-based programmes.

They go to work in the day, and return to the complex after work.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) first announced the cluster of six cases on Saturday (July 31) night.

SPS said on Sunday evening that the six cases are all supervisees working at the Institution S2 of the complex. Two of them are in hospital while the remaining four are in a community care facility.

They have all received at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, along with about 80 per cent of the supervisees in S2.

On the chain of events leading to the cluster, SPS said that a supervisee was identified by MOH as a close contact of a Covid-19 case in the community on July 26.

He was placed on quarantine order that day, and transferred to a government quarantine facility afterwards. But he has not yet tested positive for Covid-19.

On July 27, prior to the result of the first supervisee’s Covid-19 swab test, the other 10 supervisees he was housed with were isolated and tested as a precautionary measure.

One of the supervisees’ test returned positive on July 28, while the remaining nine tests were negative, said SPS. The supervisee who tested positive was transferred to a hospital after he said he was unwell.

His last swab test, conducted on July 21 as part of his rostered routine testing regime, was negative, SPS added.

The other nine supervisees were tested again on July 29 while in isolation. Five of them tested positive on July 31. One of them was transferred to a hospital as a result of his symptoms, while the remaining four are isolated at a community care facility.

SPS said most of the other supervisees at Institution S2 will return to work. But supervisees deemed to have had transient contact with the positive cases will have to undergo further Covid-19 tests before they can return to work.

“Employers who are affected by the absence of these supervisees have already been contacted,” SPS added.

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“SPS will carry out further testing for the rest of the supervisees in the coming days and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

It has conducted deep cleaning of affected areas.

SPS also said it is committed to the safe and secure custody of their inmates.

“We will continue to work closely with all stakeholders to ensure swift action is taken to ring-fence when potential Covid-19 exposures are detected,” it said.

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