March 2021 is the first month in a year when Singapore did not have a case of Covid-19 among dormitory residents. The last time that we did not have any Covid-19 in the dorms was January 2020 when the pandemic was just beginning.

The first foreign worker diagnosed with Covid-19 was “Case 42”, who stayed at Leo Dormitory in Kaki Bukit. The news bulletin from the Ministry of Health, 9 Feb 2020, said:

Case 42 is a 39 year-old male Bangladesh national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder, and has no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID [National Centre for Infectious Diseases].

He reported onset of symptoms on 1 February, and had sought treatment at a GP clinic on 3 February, and at Changi General Hospital (CGH) on 5 February. He went for a follow-up appointment at Bedok Polyclinic on 7 February and was thereafter admitted to the intensive care unit at CGH. Subsequent test results confirmed 2019-nCoV infection on 8 February afternoon, and he was transferred to NCID.

Prior to hospital admission, he had visited Mustafa Centre (145 Syed Alwi Road), and stayed at The Leo dormitory (25 Kaki Bukit Road).

See also: Straits Times, 12 Feb 2020 Coronavirus: 2 infected Bangladeshis were working at site to expand Bombardier service centre, and Mothership, 26 Feb 2020, Covid-19: Why are the 5 Bangladeshis from the Seletar Aerospace cluster of cases still in hospital?

Infections roared through April and May 2020, and only came down slowly through the following months. But there was a dramatic improvement after September 2020 as can be seen from these figures taken from the Ministry of Health’s daily bulletins.

The 801 cases detected in September came down to 48 in October and then to single digits monthly.

If the numbers are too small on this page, you can click the table and it should open up as a separate tab which you can enlarge.

Starting from October 2020, there were more and more days without any reported cases among dormitory residents. Finally, in March 2021, we have an entire month without a case.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this happy situation continues.