Singapore—Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) penned an encouraging Facebook post to Hougang residents in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases in the area.
“Hang in there, Hougang residents! We’ll get through this together!,” he wrote late on Thursday night (June 3).
The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Thursday that a new infection cluster of 13 cases had been identified at Block 506 Hougang Avenue 8.
A 58-year-old housewife from the block confirmed positive for Covid-19 was among the 35 new community cases reported on June 3. Twelve previously confirmed cases were linked to the Hougang cluster taking its tally to 13 in all.
MOH said analysis conducted by the National Public Health Laboratory showed these cases were linked.
The ministry also announced the need to test the residents and visitors of Block 506, as well as the shop staff of Block 511 Hougang Avenue 10; Blocks 681, 683 and 684 Hougang Avenue 8; Block 682 Hougang Avenue 4; and Blocks 685 and 698 Hougang Street 61.
They need to be tested for Covid-19 due to the newly detected cases, said MOH.
Mr Giam acknowledged in his post, “It’s certainly not an easy time for Hougang (Aljunied GRC) residents! Many have seen their blocks mentioned at the top of the news dozens of times in recent weeks.”
This is the second time that residents of Block 506 need to be tested for Covid-19. Earlier, a swabbing exercise was held on May 21 and 22.
A 57-year-old female resident from the block was confirmed to have Covid-19 on May 15. Hers was the earliest detected case and is believed to have sparked the cluster.
Mr Giam added, “Residents of neighbouring Blk 511 have also been requested to get swabbed after Covid-19 cases visited their common areas. This comes right after some 700 residents of Blk 507 and 501 were tested over the last three days.”
The MP and some volunteers have also worked double time to keep residents informed of the swabbing exercises, sometimes staying up until midnight to deliver notices to residents’ doorsteps.
“We just did another round of late-night letter drops to share info on the latest swab operation and I left my number if they have any questions or concerns,” Mr Giam wrote.
In an earlier Facebook post on June 3, he thanked fellow Workers’ Party MP Dennis Tan (Hougang SMC) “for dropping by on all three days to ensure everything is running smoothly and helping to answer residents’ queries”.
Mr Tan is also the chairman of the Aljuined-Hougang Town Council.
/TISG
Pritam Singh addresses residents concern over screening centre near their home