With foreign workers accounting for the vast majority of new infections, much attention has been paid to their living conditions which led to the explosion of Covid-19 in dormitories. Countless organisations and Singaporeans have stepped up in recent weeks to offer food and help.

But while piecemeal measures are well intentioned, a more structured approach is needed. Just what this looks like was described by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo and Covid-19 multi-ministry task force co-chair Lawrence Wong yesterday, in separate statements delivered in Parliament.

Explaining how the virus spread across different dormitories, Mrs Teo said that infected workers were linked through common work sites where they tend to take breaks together, and share food and utensils.

Workers from different dormitories also gathered during their rest days at places such as Mustafa Centre, a key Covid-19 cluster. "The virus may have spread through all of these activities, much like how it spread among family members, religious groups and even colleagues," she said.

Mr Wong said that to minimise wider community spread, the authorities stopped the movement of workers in and out of all dormitories, and put construction workers living outside dormitories on stay-home requirements.

Mrs Teo said with the Government and its partners having delivered basic necessities and medical services to most workers, the focus has now shifted to "getting the recovery right". This includes building community recovery facilities, and housing recovered workers in suitable accommodation to reduce the risk of recurrent transmission.

Both ministers yesterday stressed the immense challenge of taking care of 400,000 workers, a population bigger than the size of two Ang Mo Kio GRCs.

While the situation within the 43 purpose-built dormitories is now stable, thanks to active tracing and swab exercises, the picture among the thousand or so other facilities remains mixed and is taking up much bandwidth. As Mrs Teo said, the authorities are "still in the heat of battle". Their focus is on bringing the outbreak under control, so that the country can exit from the circuit breaker safely.

But members of the House yesterday set their sights on the long-term measures needed. Nominated MPs Walter Theseira and Anthea Ong asked if a Committee of Inquiry (COI) would be formed to investigate causes of the outbreak, identify those responsible for any lapses, and propose reforms.

Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked if the Manpower Ministry would consider amending the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act so that the regulations apply to all living quarters for workers; and whether it would increase the minimum gross floor area - currently 4.5 sq m - for each dormitory resident.

Mr Wong did not promise that there would be a COI, but made it clear that the authorities want to review and learn from the crisis. "That's our basic attitude - to keep improving," he said.

He acknowledged that the Government must work with the industry to fundamentally change the way construction activities are carried out. This will require a whole range of measures covering work sites, the accommodation and transport of workers, as well as additional precautions taken by the workers themselves, he said.

It is hard to see how such measures can be carried out without active state intervention, including government funding.

Aside from the issue of living space raised by Mr Ng, other pain points flagged by non-governmental organisations over the years include heavy use of common spaces such as kitchens and toilets, poor ventilation and the number of persons packed into each dorm - numbers which will have to be reduced if safe distancing is to become a norm.

Further upstream, the relatively small size of contracts awarded to some local firms compared with foreign ones - an issue which MP Lee Bee Wah has raised before - continues to constrain their profitability and capacity to improve the living conditions of foreign workers.

Labour shortages and delays in the production and transport of materials due to the outbreak have already affected local firms' ability to meet contractual deadlines. New requirements for workers, if passed on as higher costs, could be the nail in the coffin for smaller firms.

When the pandemic is over, officials will reflect and look into areas where they could have done better, said Mrs Teo yesterday. One assumes that this will involve all key stakeholders, as well as a thorough review of every part of the value chain.

Even as the country focuses on its immediate recovery, it will need to take a long, hard look at the fundamentals on which Singapore's economy is built - including striking a balance between business costs and improving the liveability of foreign workers' accommodation.