RESPONSES TO MEDIA ENQUIRIES (UPDATED 8 FEB 2021)
The following are BGC Group's responses to MOH's latest report on the unlinked local transmission in Singapore on 7th February 2021.
Case 60023 is an employee of BGC Group, deployed at our manpower operations project at Changi Airport.
1. When was Case 60023 employed? What is his role?
BGC: The affected employee has the role of an airport tagger who is involved in tagging tracking devices on incoming passengers at Changi Airport.
2. How long has this employee been deployed at Changi Airport in this role?
BGC: Our manpower operations project has been running at Changi Airport since 11 August of last year. The affected employee has been deployed near the start of our project and has been with us for over 4 months now.
3. How many employees does BGC Group have working in this role or other roles at Changi Airport?
BGC: When COVID cases surged in Singapore last year, BGC Group was managing the deployment of up to 60 employees in this manpower operations project. Employees we manage include airport taggers, ushers and administrators.
As COVID-19 lightened up of late, we now have about 30 headcounts who are actively deployed in two shifts at the airport.
4. How many of your other employees were affected and put under Quarantine?
BGC: We have 12 negatively-tested employees in close contact with the case, who are placed on 14-day quarantine. However, all have been tested negative in the same test. BGC Group will continue to closely monitor the health of these affected employees.
5. Is BGC Group reviewing any safety SOPs related to the workers deployed at Changi Airport in light of this case?
BGC: We have reviewed that there were no breaches to our existing healthcare and safety SOPs.
Our employees who are required to be in close contact with incoming passengers are adequately equipped with face shields, face masks and gloves. Given that the nature of the job involves potential contact with imported cases, our employees understand the risk factors involved and have to strictly adhere to frequent disinfecting schedules and daily temperature reporting. We clean and disinfect our equipment before and after every passenger is tagged.
The recent positive case was detected through a routine, bi-weekly swab schedule. He was tested negative in the prior round of swab testing.
We are treating this unfortunate first incident very seriously and BGC Group will be increasing the frequency of temperature taking to a 3-hourly reporting. Our frequency of disinfecting our counters will also be strictly stepped up so to ensure an even safer environment for all employees under our care.
At the moment, our employees based at Changi Airport are still awaiting their vaccination schedules as Singapore progressively rolls this out to more front liners.
For further media enquiries and updates on this matter, please contact BGC Group's
communications lead at [email protected]