Inside Singapore's biggest coronavirus cluster

For Habibur Rahman, the only glimpse of life outside the four walls of the cramped Singapore dormitory room he shares with 11 other migrant workers are security guards urging people to stay apart and cleaners scrubbing down communal toilets.

The 25-year-old Bangladeshi is one of thousands of workers, mainly from South Asia, who came to Singapore to provide a better life for their families. Now, however, they are under government-ordered quarantine, battling boredom, frustration and anxiety in a sprawling dormitory complex called S11 @Punggol, home to 1,977 of Singapore's 8,014 COVID-19 cases.

S11 is one of many utilitarian housing blocks on the fringes of the modern city-state where more than 300,000 migrant labourers from Bangladesh, India and China live in rooms with bunks for 12 to 20 men, working jobs that pay as little as S$20 a day.

These dormitories, in areas tourists seldom visit, account for more than 75% of the country's total infections. Nineteen dormitories have been quarantined so far, affecting tens of thousands of workers.

The dormitories have highlighted a weak link in Singapore's containment effort, which has otherwise won global plaudits. And critics say such mass quarantines could increase the risk of infection in the blocks.

Singapore authorities say that they have taken preventative measures in migrant housing since the start of the city-state's outbreak in January but that the quarantine measures were necessary once the virus spread.

The workers said they leave their rooms only to use the bathroom, and meals are delivered. Their days are spent streaming movies on their phones, peering out of balconies draped with laundry, or chatting with concerned family members back home.

Some S11 residents complained about the sanitation, the lack of precautions and monotony in the dormitories. Others praised the Singapore government's response.

But all were afraid of catching the virus.