American fast food giant KFC charged with flouting COVID safety rules in Singapore

 Singapore: A court in Singapore on Wednesday charged American fast food giant KFC with breaching two COVID-19 safety regulations at one of its outlets in the city-state.

The KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) management was accused of allowing four customers to enter its outlet at Far East Plaza in the fashionable Orchard Road hotel belt on July 10 last year without first assessing if any of them was a symptomatic COVID-19 case.

The outlet, a permitted enterprise carrying on a retail food and drinks business, was supposed to establish and apply procedures and controls to ensure that their customers were assessed for COVID-19 symptoms, according to the charge sheet.

It is also accused of failing to take all practicable and reasonable steps to ensure that the same four customers remained in groups of not more than two people as per the rules on social distancing implemented in Singapore at that time, according to Channel News Asia report.

Operations Director Jonathan Liew Tiong Soo, a representative for KFC, received the charges on behalf of the company and asked for a week’s adjournment to seek legal advice.

The case has been adjourned till January 21, the report said.

For each charge, the company can be fined up to SGD 10,000 (USD 7,400.28) if convicted.

Meanwhile, Singapore reported 846 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Tuesday, including 400 imported infections.

There were no fatalities, keeping the death toll from coronavirus complications at 838.

Separately, 438 new Omicron infections were reported on Tuesday, comprising 279 imported cases and 159 local cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

As of Tuesday, Singapore recorded 287,243 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.