SLR Revolution employee who tested positive for COVID-19 had gone to work after 'mild symptom'

SINGAPORE: An employee at SLR Revolution camera shop in Excelsior Shopping Centre who tested positive for COVID-19 had "a mild symptom" the night before he went to work, the store said on Friday (Aug 28).

The employee, a 61-year-old Singaporean man, was reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) as having tested positive on Aug 20 after having onset of symptoms on Aug 17.

SLR Revolution said in response to CNA’s queries that the man had reported for work on Aug 18 after experiencing a “mild symptom” the night before. 

"On the morning of 18th, he felt well and proceeded to work. Halfway through, he felt symptoms again and he left to see a doctor immediately," said SLR Revolution general manager Jeremy Loh, adding that the employee has been on medical leave since.

READ: MOH 'facilitating' tests for visitors to camera store where COVID-19 case may have been in contact with infected employee

The man has so far been linked to a 65-year-old Singaporean woman who tested positive for the disease on Aug 23.

MOH on Thursday also reported that a 31-year-old Singaporean woman tested positive after visiting the shop on Aug 17, and "may have had contact" with the employee.

The woman first had symptoms on Aug 22 and was confirmed with COVID-19 on Aug 26.

MOH also said on Thursday that while the risk for visitors is assessed to be low, it will be  contacting everyone who visited the shop between Aug 15 and Aug 18, and facilitating COVID-19 testing for them.

When asked about the 31-year-old woman who had visited the store and the extent of the contact she might have had, Mr Loh said: “We are unsure which customer is infected as MOH is unable to reveal, hence we are unable to know the duration spent.

“On average, a customer spends about 10 to 30 minutes in our shop depending on the item purchased.

“They will not have physical contact. Contact only happens if both the sales person and the customer touch the same item.”

READ: Singapore reports 94 new COVID-19 cases, including 58 at Sungei Tengah Lodge

Mr Loh added that the retailer was not aware that COVID-19 cases had visited the store until it was informed by MOH during contact tracing on Thursday afternoon.

On its contact tracing efforts, Mr Loh said SLR Revolution has been working with MOH.

“We have provided access for our safe entry to MOH, as well as CCTV footage to police officers assisting in contact tracing.

“Our affected employee has also tried his best to provide details of all his contacts for that last few days to MOH, the rest of the staff has also helped the affected employee in case he missed out anyone,” he said.

In a Facebook post on Aug 20, SLR Revolution said that its Excelsior Shopping Centre branch would close temporarily after an employee was confirmed to have COVID-19. 

It added that staff members who worked at the branch would be quarantined for 14 days and its premises would be disinfected.

On Aug 25, SLR Revolution wrote that all employees from its Excelsior branch had tested negative for COVID-19, but that they would not return to work until Sep 1. 

The company said the team from its Jurong Point branch - which did not have any interaction with employees at the Excelsior outlet - would be stationed at the shop at Excelsior Shopping Centre when it resumed operations on Friday.

Mr Loh told CNA on Friday the store had engaged cleaning company approved by the National Environment Agency on Aug 21 - a day after the employee tested positive for the disease - to disinfect the shop.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram