Eligible foreign workers staying in dormitories will be allowed to visit recreation centres on their rest days at staggered times from Saturday to buy necessities, get a haircut and remit money home.
These centres also have food and beverage outlets, mini-marts and communal facilities. Workers can visit only a centre that has been assigned to their dorms.
There are eight such recreation centres - in locations like Kranji, Tuas, Woodlands and Kaki Bukit - that have been built over the years to serve dorm residents. On average, each centre can accommodate about 300 dorm residents with safe distancing measures in place to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Seven centres are operating, and the eighth will soon be operational, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday.
The recreation centre visits are part of measures to ease restrictions for migrant workers safely within and outside dorms.
This comes after a two-month trial run since Aug 24 that allowed selected healthy residents from cleared dorms to visit the centres on their rest days.
The low infection rates in the community and dorms over a period of time also played a part in this decision, said MOM.
To be eligible to visit the centres, workers must have recovered from Covid-19 and have immunity from the disease, or have tested negative recently under the Government's rostered routine testing regime.
Dorm residents have to apply - up to seven days in advance - for an exit pass via the SGWorkPass mobile app to visit their dorm's assigned recreation centre.
The dorm that the workers are staying in must not have any active Covid-19 cases. Workers must also download and activate their TraceTogether app at all times.
There are four staggered three-hour time slots between 8am and 8pm for foreign workers to visit the centres on their rest days.
A fifth time slot from 8pm to 11pm will be added from Nov 2, after feedback that some workers prefer to visit after their working hours.
The rest days for foreign workers in the construction, marine and process sectors have also been staggered after MOM worked with sector agencies and employers on this.
For many migrant workers, visiting the recreation centres will mark their first time stepping out of their dorms since March.
Suicides and attempted suicides reported by the media and documented in videos shared online have renewed concerns over the mental and emotional health of workers, many of whom have spent months confined to their living quarters.
Yesterday, Mr Christopher Koh, director of occupational safety and health unit of MOM's workplace policy and strategy division, said the recreation centre visits are "important for the mental well-being of our workers and to restore a sense of normalcy to their lives".
Speaking at the Tuas South Recreation Centre where journalists were given a tour, he said staggering workers' visits to the centres helps to spread out the visitor load at the centres, which have a limited capacity.
For Bangladeshi mechanical engineer Sonjon Kumar Dey, 36, yesterday's visit to Tuas South Recreation Centre was a much-awaited one, as he has been cooped up in his dorm room since March.
He said: "We had a tough life the past eight months in the dorm. There was mental pressure (at the time) but here, we can refresh our minds and eat and talk to friends."
