Wow, it has been more than three months since my last post! That was also my last post on cheongsams for the Chinese New Year. So much has happened since, which I’m sure everyone reading this knows what is going on right now. Who would have thought 2020 would be such a terrible, terrible year!
Actually, for us in Singapore, we found out about an epidemic going on in China sometime in mid January . Even though no one was infected in Singapore then, many people, including me, got concerned, and we started to look for surgical masks and hand sanitizers. The reason being many of us had been through the SARS crisis in 2003, and we knew we had to prepare for this quickly in case it spread to us. But, the masks were sold out even in those early days! Not just masks, but hand sanitizers, thermometers and alcohol wipes were out of stock.
On the day before CNY eve (that is on 23 Jan), Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, went into lockdown. News also reported that many Wuhan residents tried to beat the lockdown and got out of the city before it went into effect. Worse was some even went on overseas vacations despite not feeling well. As expected, those news caused more panicking among many people here as we tried to search for masks and sanitizers. I think, many instinctively knew that we would be affected. (Perhaps it was the SARS experience.) So over the long CNY holidays, I checked out as many pharmacies and supermarkets as possible. At one pharmacy, I saw a number of people queuing at the checkout, and suspected it must be what everyone was seeking for, and quickly joined the line. The pharmacy was rationing the masks at 10 pieces per buyer, but that was better than nothing. I also managed to get some hand sanitizers and wipes at another supermarket.
When we returned to work the following week, the lockdown in Wuhan was the main topic of discussion for everyone, and we were asking each other for supply information. Some of my colleagues were in Switzerland then, and we asked them for help to bring back masks, sanitizers and thermometers. But the replies came back were that those items were out of stock, and it turned out the Chinese tourists were snapping them up. Lucky for us, our Jakarta colleagues were able to source for masks locally, and I managed to get a box of 50 kid’s masks for Buddy and 25 adult masks for my husband and I.
I did put on masks initially when I took the public transport, and so did some people. I was conscious that if the epidemic continued for some time we might still not have sufficient masks to last us throughout the period. I continued my search for more masks, but every pharmacies had the same sign put up “masks are not in stock”. At the same time, the government also told people that only those not feeling well should wear mask, and that the nation had sufficient masks in the stockpile. That didn’t sound very convincing to me and some people. If there were sufficient masks, why were there no stocks available for the public? Besides, wouldn’t the masks protect the wearers from getting droplets of virus from carriers? But there were a lot of advisories everywhere on not wearing a mask if one is well, like the poster below.
Eventually I decided to stop wearing masks, mainly to conserve them for the time when they would really be essential. You see, during late January to early February, the number of infected cases here was pretty low. Though, because of the complaints of many people who couldn’t get any masks, the government gave out 4 surgical masks to each household in early February.
The first couple of Covid cases were tourists from Wuhan. You would have though the government would immediately ban flights but instead the ban was given a few days of lead time before it took effect.
In mid-February, my company decided to play safe and put in place a business continuity plan in mid February, where the staff were placed into two groups. Each group took turns to work from home on alternate weeks so that there were no cross interactions within the office. However, most companies were caught without BCP in place. The concept of working from home is not very popular here, unfortunately. I don’t know if it’s an Asian culture or what, but generally the bosses/management can’t seem to trust their staff to be responsible.
Throughout February, the cases in Singapore slowly climbed to more than a 100. The virus had also spread to more countries throughout the world. By early March, things were not well in Europe as well as other parts of the world. The cases also continued to increase here. One of the problems was, at that time, no one knew that the virus had an incubation period in the carrier before symptoms appeared. So, despite setting up temperature screening, a number of carriers were not detected because they didn’t show symptoms until a few days later.
The government initially didn’t ban short-term visitors into the countries, except for a handful, until there was a a spike in imported cases. The ban was only announced on 22 March, which by then the virus had spread to more than half the world. To me, I feel that was so reactive; the government seemed to place more emphasize on trying to keep the economy afloat. Not only this, I think that the measures put in place were pretty half-assed. Like for instance there were different guidelines for people coming back from different parts of the world, depending on severity of infection, like Leave of Absence, Stay-Home Notice and Quarantine (the strictest) (Differences between LoA, SHN and Quarantine.). The strange thing is that only those served with any of these notices are affected, but not their family members or people living in close proximity with them.
Firstly, I don’t know why there have to be different advisories, and secondly why shouldn’t those staying together be included as well? We already knew in March that the virus can be transmitted between humans. So shouldn’t anyone coming into the country serve a 14-day quarantine in a government-designated area instead of their residences? Without making quarantine mandatory, there are bound to be those who flouted the guidelines despite the penalty imposed or tracking methods, which was what happened.
It’s telling that getting people to use common sense during a crisis is not going to work, because there will be some stubborn and idiotic people who insist on doing things their way. During the one-week school break in mid March, there was calls to cancel non-essential travels. But some still went ahead because they had already paid for the trip. When they returned they were issued the Stay Home Notice. But like I said, who to say everyone complied, and those living in close proximity to these individuals didn’t have to self isolate. Not only this, entertainment outlets like night clubs and places of worships were only told to close in end March. Again, this was not effective immediately but give a day of lead time. Guess what? Many youngsters went clubbing for the last time before the shutdown.
Worse of all, scientists realized there were asymptomatic carriers around, which again makes temperature screening useless. The only way to find them is to have wide spread testing like what the South Koreans and Taiwanese had done. I am not sure if we had sufficient testing kits or testing done to find them here. So, in spite of all the so-called social distancing measures put in place in March, the number of new cases per day continued to increase until it was more than a hundred when April came.
On 3rd of April, the Prime Minister finally announced a series of strict measures to keep as many people as possible at home, called a “circuit breaker”. All non-essential workplaces were closed, companies were told to arrange for their staff to work from home, schools were moved to home-based learning, no dining in restaurants or eateries and only take-away or delivery allowed. This was to start on 7th April for about a month until 4th May. Too bad for us, this also means that all sport facilities including those in condominiums, except for open air stadiums, are to close as well. I lamented the end of Buddy’s tennis training, but my husband thought they could perhaps try to practice at the park across the road from our home.
The CB, started on 7 April, also meant stricter regulations were put in place including ban on private gatherings at home and in public places. People are only allowed to leave home to buy essential items, like groceries or food. Also in April, the government finally insisted that people had to wear masks when taking public transport and going to supermarkets or Malls etc. They issued reusable masks for each household members in early April. But parks and beaches were allowed to stay open, and many flocked here during evenings and weekends, even playing Soccer or other games. To hell with social distancing!
A few days later, the government had no choice but to close beaches, some Parks and all stadiums. The penalty for not complying with the CB also became stricter. Initially first time violator was given a warning but it was changed to a fine of S$300 after many were caught flouting guidelines.
On 21st April, because there was still significant cases of community spread, the CB was tightened further, and extended to 1st June. More shops were closed including stand-alone beverage, dessert, and cake shops. (It was a bit of a disaster for me because it meant the closure of bubble tea shops!) The government also mandated that any one stepping out of his or her home has to put on a mask. Again, we were told to stay home and only step out when necessary. But the country was batting with a bigger infection problem; the one involving foreign/migrant workers.
A couple of days after the first CB announcement on 3 April, there were two foreign workers’ dormitories that were placed on isolation after infection was discovered there. That was the beginning of the steep climb in infected number. You see, our economy relies a lot on many cheap foreign workers for menial jobs. Many of them are housed in cramp quarters, and hygiene has always been a problem. Social distancing is an impossibility as well. But this issue is regularly overlooked by many, despite being highlighted by NGOs for these migrant workers. In fact there were warning signs over the past few years of the bad condition in dormitories when there were outbreak of diseases such as tuberculosis. But it looked like most people, including the government, ignore the problem, and now it is bitting us hard on our ass. From the initial two dorms, the virus spread like wild fire in the various dormitories around the Isla6-state.
The number of new cases a day started to spike in early April. The number kept increasing each day, and the highest number recorded was close to 1500 on 20th April. The government had to scramble to test the workers, looking for locations to house the healthy ones and isolating those with the virus. Many were relocated to military barracks, unused public flats, and even floating hotels. Lucky for us, almost all of these workers are young and generally healthy, and so few require intensive care. But there were and still are many being hospitalized.
The massive effort to contain the spread in the dorms worked after a couple of weeks. The number of new cases has been on a slow downward trend since the peak on 20th April. As of 2nd May, there are a total of 17,548 cases reported. The infected migrant workers make up almost 80%. Also, within the local community, the spread has slowed significantly as well. So the government has allowed some shops like those selling cakes to reopen, as well as hairdressers and barbers, but only for basic haircut.
I had mentioned earlier that I felt the anti-pandemic measures implemented were half-assed. The government seemed to think it could have its cake and eat it by trying to salvage the economy and containing the infection at the same time. During a pandemic, you cannot have half measures. I know the economic impact of a lockdown is devastating, but as long as we don’t keep the infection rate in check, the pandemic would cause great stress to our healthcare systems. In the end, a lockdown would still have to be implemented when the community spread is out of control, unless we want to follow the Swedes, who think a pandemic-induced herd immunity works. But the cost is many deaths, and there are reports that their healthcare systems are under strain.
A better way to avoid a lockdown is to have wide spread testing, which was the case for Taiwan and South Korea. They were able to detect infection early and stop it before it spreads. But I suspect our government was not able to do so. It had no choice but to implement this movement restriction measures (just a slightly better form of lockdown) in April. We have basically prolonged and deepened our economic pain since February.
Personally, I think Singapore is in a good position to weather this pandemic storm, and able to provide aids to businesses and citizens to dampen the financial impact compared to many other countries. The government didn’t have to resort to borrowing to finance the economic aids package, and there is sufficient reserve to do so. If we had locked down earlier, with the right financial aids, we could still be able to tide over this period, and the Budget might not have to be S$60 billion.
(Note. As of 4 May, there have been 18 reported deaths from the coronavirus in Singapore. Almost all are old folks with underlying conditions.)
petulantchild 