Migrant workers living in dormitories have to apply for visit pass to go to 4 locations on Sundays, public holidays

SINGAPORE: Migrant workers living in dormitories will no longer need an exit pass to visit community areas from Jun 24, but will need to apply for a visit pass if they want to go to four popular locations on Sundays and public holidays.

Currently, migrant workers in dormitories have to apply for an exit pass if they want to visit any location within the community.

"To manage crowding at popular places, we will introduce a new mechanism to manage the high footfall at four locations – Chinatown, Geylang Serai, Jurong East and Little India," said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (Jun 10).

If a migrant worker wishes to visit one of these popular locations on Sundays or public holidays, he will have to apply for a visit pass.

Up to 80,000 visit passes will be available in total per Sunday or public holiday. For a start, there will be 30,000 passes for Little India, 20,000 for Jurong East, and 15,000 each for Geylang Serai and Chinatown.

They will not need a pass if they are visiting other locations in Singapore on Sundays and public holidays.

No passes will be needed if migrant workers are visiting community areas, including popular places, on weekdays, Saturdays or non-public holidays, said MOH.

On Apr 26, the exit pass quotas were increased to 25,000 for weekdays and 50,000 for weekends and public holidays.

Unvaccinated migrant workers were also allowed to apply for an exit pass. They no longer have to undergo an antigen rapid test (ART) before visiting.

All workers can visit recreation centres at any time without taking an ART or applying for an exit pass.

On Friday, MOH said the local COVID-19 situation has been stable over the past month, despite standing down most safe management measures and the reopening of borders.

The daily average local case count is about 3,000 a day, and the average number of COVID-19 related hospitalisation has stayed lower than 300. That is compared to a peak of about 1,700 during the Omicron wave.