SINGAPORE — Employees at the EnergyOne gym at Safra Punggol who have had contact with a recently confirmed Covid-19 patient have been asked to stay home for 14 days to monitor their health, while the gym remains closed until further notice.

The patient, a 26-year-old Singaporean man identified as Case 138, had visited the EnergyOne gym on March 6 and was on its premises from 7.36pm to 9.32pm.

As a precautionary measure, the gym — along with other possible areas that were visited by the infected user — was cleaned and disinfected based on guidelines provided by the National Environment Agency, Safra said in a statement on Monday (March 9).

It added that visitors and employees at the gym were evacuated after it received a notice on March 8 from the Ministry of Health (MOH) confirming the case.

In its March 7 daily update, MOH had released information about the patient.

The man was warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and is linked to the cluster at The Life Church and Missions Singapore in Paya Lebar. On March 9, MOH said that he was discharged.

He is a close contact of Case 66 and family member of Case 83 and Case 91, and these three previous cases had attended a Chinese New Year gathering on Jan 25 at a residence on Mei Hwan Drive near Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

Cases 83 and 91, a Singaporean couple in their 50s, had visited the church on Jan 19 on the same day that a married couple from Wuhan (Cases 8 and 9) was there.

Being a family member of the Singaporean couple, the man had been quarantined from Feb 15 to March 6, but after the quarantine ended, he went to the gym.

Safra said that the man was allowed entry onto its premises because he did not have any of the risk factors related to the coronavirus infection: He had cleared the mandatory temperature checks, had declared that he did not have any travel history to affected countries such as China and South Korea, and was not in close contact with any infected Covid-19 patients in the past 14 days.

Safra said that it had stepped up its precautionary measures since the authorities raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) alert level to orange. These include:

• Mandatory temperature taking and declaration of travel history, health and contact details for contact tracing by all visitors to Safra clubs and activities with strict entry requirements. All employees at the club are also required to take their temperature twice daily, and seek medical attention and stay home if they have any flu-like symptoms or are unwell.

• Increased cleaning of frequently touched surfaces to once hourly.

• Frequency of cleaning at common areas tripled, along with the provision of hand sanitisers.

• Health advisories displayed at all Safra clubs and emailed to members to encourage good personal hygiene practices to keep the community safe.

On Monday, MOH said that there are 36 people who have contracted the virus and are linked to a private dinner function held at Safra Jurong on Feb 15. This makes it the largest cluster of infections in the country. Singapore has recorded 160 cases of Covid-19 so far on Monday. 

The infected people had attended the event held at the Joy Garden Restaurant there. They were involved in singing activities and classes conducted by the People’s Association at several community clubs and residents' committees.