GGRAsia – Seven Covid-19 cases added to MBS cluster, total now 32

Seven Covid-19 cases added to MBS cluster, total now 32

Jul 26, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

Health authorities in Singapore have added seven confirmed cases of Covid-19 to a cluster of infections linked to the casino at the Marina Bay Sands resort, it was announced on Sunday. As of that day, there was a total of 32 Covid-19 cases connected to the property’s casino.

The information disclosed by the Ministry of Health of the city-state did not provide detail on the seven new cases, namely whether they were either people that worked on the gaming floor or gamblers that had visited the property recently.

The casino complex (pictured in a file photo) is operated by a subsidiary of international casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.

The property said in a statement last week it was “temporarily closing” its casino for “deep cleaning” with effect from July 22. That was following detection of cases of Covid-19 infection involving individuals “who worked in or visited” the gaming venue, according to a separate statement at the time from Singapore’s Ministry of Health.

The gaming venue will be closed to the public until August 5.

At the time, the ministry said that it was “conducting special testing operations for all staff” of the casino at the property. “We will also extend free Covid-19 testing to members of the public who had visited Marina Bay Sands casino between 7 July and 21 July, 2021,” it added.

Singapore is home to a casino duopoly, with the other casino complex – Resorts World Sentosa – operated by Genting Singapore Ltd. Management at the latter venue told GGRAsia last week that the property was to maintain “reduced guest capacity” for its gaming operations from July 22 until August 18. Capacity restrictions at Resorts World Sentosa would also apply to a number of non-gaming attractions, a spokesperson told GGRAsia.

As of Monday morning, a notice on the Resorts World Sentosa casino website said there was a “two players per table” limit at its gaming tables, and bets from standing players would “not be accepted.”

The latest capacity restrictions at Resorts World Sentosa followed a decision by Singapore’s authorities that further tightened Covid-19-related community safety measures. Since July 22, Singapore has reverted to a so-called “phase two (heightened alert)”, in effect until at least August 18.

As of 12pm on Sunday, Singapore had preliminarily confirmed 177 new cases of locally-transmitted Covid-19 infection, and eight imported cases. According to the Ministry of Health, there were 25 active clusters – including that linked to the Marina Bay Sands casino – with the various clusters ranging in size from three infections, up to 792 infections.