SINGAPORE — A total of 30 companies in essential services are being investigated by authorities for possibly breaching safe distancing measures while ferrying workers in lorries, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

This comes just days after measures requiring employers and lorry owners to ensure workers maintain a one-metre distance from each other while seated were announced last Friday.

As of 10am on Tuesday, 28 lorries were stopped and checked in a joint islandwide operation carried out by the MOM, the Land Transport Authority and the Traffic Police. The operation will be carried out throughout the “circuit breaker” period, which started on 7 April and is slated to end on 4 May.

“Companies in essential services need to ensure that transport arrangements to ferry workers comply with enhanced safe distancing measures introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19. If necessary, employers should make provisions for additional trips or lorries,” said the MOM in a Facebook post on Tuesday (14 April) evening.

Under the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Act, an employer or company who flout the safe distancing measures can face a maximum fine of $10,000 or a jail term of up to six months, or both. Penalties are double for repeat offenders.

“The authorities will continue to monitor the compliance rate and ramp up enforcement efforts as needed,” said the MOM.

To date, Singapore has 3,252 cases of the virus, of which 611 have fully recovered while 10 have died. The largest cluster of 718 cases is linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol.

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