The National Environment Agency (NEA) conducted about 305,000 inspections across Singapore, as well as about 2,300 checks at construction sites.
About 9,000 mosquito breeding habitats were discovered by the agency, according to NEA on 3 June.
As a result, 59 stop-work orders have been issued to construction sites for repeated mosquito breeding offences this year, thus far.
Cases expected to hit new peak
The number of weekly dengue cases in Singapore is also expected to hit a new peak and surpass the highest weekly figure of 1,787 in 2020.
The year 2020 saw a total of 35,315 cases of dengue for the whole year.
More than 12,000 cases of dengue have already been reported this year, which is more than the 5,258 cases recorded in 2021.
Just last week, 1,569 cases were reported, with NEA adding that the weekly figure could be seen exceeding 2,000 because June is the start of the traditional peak dengue season.
This is a concern for us
Desmond Tan, the minister of state for sustainability and environment, said during a media event at a construction site on 3 June, that this is a concern and that the authorities want to enhance and step up their measures to deal with dengue.
He added that NEA has also been stepping up their inspections, along with working with the community and grassroots organisations to exercise more control and prevention measures.
he further added that the inspections have uncovered mosquito breeding in about 60% of household units, 24% in common areas and 5% in construction sites.
Companies that were issued stop-work orders (SWO) are only allowed to carry out corrective actions and review the effectiveness of sanitation and vector control programmes at the sites and the SWO will only be lifted when the measures have been completed and NEA has given their approval.
Repeat offenders
Besides the 59 worksites that were issued SWOs, 6 contractors have been issued repeated SWOs at the same worksite because of poor upkeeping.
One of the more “egregious cases” with multiple mosquito breeding habitats was a construction site at Woodlands Avenue 9, which is a dengue cluster.
9 mosquito breeding sites with more than a few hundred mosquito larvae were found in sanitation facilities, like toilet bowls and etc, during an April inspection.
As of Thursday (2 June), there were more than 405 active dengue clusters, which is an increase form the 196 clusters at the end of April.