At the start of the coronavirus crisis, it appeared that Asian state Singapore was doing well in containing the virus, using aggressive testing and tracing methods as well as quarantine for those infected.
However, the number of cases has recently skyrocketed past the 10,000 figure, The Guardian reports, largely because of the virus's spread among the city-state's migrant workers.
Singapore has around 300,000 migrant workers, around 200,000 of whom are from China. They mostly live in crowded dormitory conditions on industrial estates, and around 8,000 of coronavirus cases confirmed so far have been among these migrant workers.
Singapore’s minister for manpower said this week that migrant workers would be ordered to stop work, which is likely to have severe financial repercussions for the country. It is tacitly accepted that isolating sick workers is basically impossible given the conditions in which they currently live, making it unclear what provisions will be made to protect their welfare.