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Jewel Changi Airport is set to reopen on 14 June, but the passenger terminal buildings will remain closed till further notice.
After a one-month closure due to the emergence of a COVID-19 cluster among airport workers, Jewel Changi Airport is set to reopen today (14 June) as no new cases were detected among airport workers, reported TODAY.
The airport’s passenger terminal buildings, however, will remain closed.
“More details about the passenger terminal buildings’ reopening will be released nearer the date,” said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) in a joint statement.
Minister for Transport S. Iswaran explained that the passenger terminals’ opening would depend on a “holistic assessment of the situation”.
“It’s not so much a specific set of conditions as it is an overall assessment of where we are, operationally in Changi, and whether we are able to now take the next step in opening in a confident way as part of this clear calibrated opening of Changi to Singaporeans,” he said as quoted by TODAY.
“I remain optimistic that if we are able to put in place effectively all the measures and run them well… I think we have a good chance of opening the other aspects of Changi sooner, rather than later.”
The airport has implemented enhanced measures at passenger terminals, including a breathalyser COVID-19 test for some airport workers after every shift.
The airport has conducted a small-scale pilot of the TracieX breathalyser since 3 June.
Produced by Singapore medical technology company Silver Factory Technology, the breathalyser has been trialled at Changi Airport’s Terminal 1 as well as the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
To take the test, a person blows into a disposable breathalyser fitted with a sensor chip for around 10 seconds. The breathalyser is then inserted into a reading device for vibrational spectroscopy analysis, with the result produced in two minutes.
This is faster compared to a rapid antigen test, which produces a result within 30 minutes.
“(The airport workers) will also experience less discomfort as the test is non-invasive,” said CAAS and CAG as quoted by TODAY.
The test was first rolled out to workers within Zone 1, the airport’s highest-risk zone. CAG announced last month that it was dividing the airport into three zones to prevent co-mingling among workers.
About 4,400 employees work in Zone 1, which includes the arrival gates within the terminals as well as the immigration and baggage claim halls.
Meanwhile, CAAS and CAG shared that they had set aside $15 million to help airport workers adjust to the enhanced safety measures rolled out since 24 May.
The measures include tighter access controls between zones to prevent Zone 1 staff members from mingling with staff from other zones. Workers in Zone 1 must always wear personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns and face shields over their face masks.
The money will help defray the cost of the workers’ personal protective equipment, contribute to catering meals for the workers, and their monthly special allowance for six months.
The measures were implemented after an investigation on the COVID-19 cluster at the airport showed that the Delta variant of the virus has a risk of spreading even through transient interactions. This means that even brief contact may still lead to a transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
The Changi Airport cluster was considered the biggest COVID-19 cluster within the city-state at the time, with over 100 persons infected, which include 43 airport workers.
CAG and CAAS said 42 workers have been discharged, while the remaining worker is recovering at the hospital with no oxygen supplementation.
On whether shops within the terminals would receive help due to the delayed opening, Iswaran explained that this matter is between the shop operators and CAG.
“The general support that the government renders is available to all the enterprises,” he said.
“Specific to any particular location and so on, it’s between the landlord—in this case it’s CAG—and the operators, and I think they work out the arrangements.”
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Cheryl Chiew, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this story, email: cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
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