All Hua Zai food outlets will be closed from June 1 to 14

From Jun 1 to Jun 14, all 26 Hua Zai food outlets will be closed to the public and will undergo deep cleaning to prevent any potential chain of transmission, announced the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Jun 1.

MOH is currently investigating the COVID-19 cases among the workers at the Hua Zai food outlets for the possibility of further transmissions.

Previously, only the Hua Zai outlet at NTUC Foodfare at Block 308 Anchorvale Road had been closed since May 30 after a new cluster was identified there. This cluster now has nine cases.

On Tuesday, a total of 15 local COVID-19 cases were reported, seven of them being unlinked cases while the other eight were linked cases.

Among the unlinked cases, one of them was a 26-year-old delivery rider from the Pizza Hut outlet in Hougang Green. 

The rider had tested negative for COVID-19 on May 26 during the ministry’s special testing operations for delivery riders working in Hougang. He was immediately isolated when his antigen rapid test came back positive after showing symptoms for the virus on Monday (May 31). 

Among the eight linked cases in the community, two were preschoolers aged two and four from Carpe Dien at Ang Mo Kio Drive and My First Skool at Block 332B Anchorvale Link respectively. Both of them were quarantined on Monday after their test results came back positive. 

MOH also announced three new cases with links to previous cases, creating three new clusters. The first one is linked to a 35-year-old kitchen crew member at Kota Zheng Zong Bak Kut Teh in Serangoon Gardens, the second one is linked to a 24-year-old man who works at a McDonald’s outlet in The Woodgrove and the last one linked to a 65-year-old homemaker.  

With the 18 new cases, this brings the total number of local COVID-19 cases to 62,069.