What are the challenges you faced at the COVID-19 quarantine zones (aside from the heat), maybe on the personal or mental level?

I think the challenge would be the different locations, like what Fay had said. We do government quarantine facilities, which are mainly chalets, hotels. And then we’ve also gone into the factory-converted dorms, which are all construction sites. So they both pose a different (set of) challenges, and we only know what we’re up against when we reach there in the morning before we set up. Sometimes there are some chalets --- when we go we don’t even have an area to do proper swabs and do the packing. We have to just get plastic chairs, set up booths, it could be under the hot sun. Or if you go to a dorm, we have to find the right area, where to swab.

Because we have to keep it in an open area, we don’t want people to be breathing droplets all over the place. So I think that’s a big challenge for us. We are very well-prepared, we have briefings every day before we go out. So in terms of our own personal gear, what to expect and all that, we know what to do but it’s just that when we hit the ground, suddenly you have to make up your mind what to do, where to do it, and you have to do it fast because the workers have all started to queue up and you got to clear them. So that’s the biggest challenge.

You say besides the heat, well, I would say it’s the heat! I think a week into this, Badrun and I started fasting. And never, since I have reached adolescence until now -- I have never ever had to break my fast. And on the first day of fasting, and the new PPE suit came in -- it was completely impervious to moisture coming in or out, and I actually tapped out. I almost blacked out. Dr. Fay was there and a lot of the (inaudible), and they saved my rear by taking over. I needed to take a 30-minute timeout. I think the heat is the number one most overwhelming thing, and it’s just getting hotter by the day.

There are a few challenges, and fasting is definitely one of them. I just went back to back today, and actually I feel -- even after half a session, half a day I feel drained. But today I went the whole day, and I tell you, I feel really drained right now. My mouth is dry. And when I got back just now, I was just flat. I’m glad I got home in one piece.

The other challenge is actually communication. Because we want to explain to them what the process is like, we also need to ask some questions about their health. And the basic is that we need to find out who they are because we need to identify that we have the right patient in front of us. But language can be a very big barrier. We are so used to, as dentists, to communicating to your patients, reassuring them, explaining things to them. And not being able to explain what they are going through or what they have to go through is very tough for us. We cannot just say, “forget about it”, and just shove it down their nose. We cannot do that. We do not want to do that. So actually language is a big barrier.

We end up using sign language, actions to hopefully -- even the tone of the voice. Because they cannot see your smiles, we cannot smile and reassure them. So we have to (watch the) tone (of) our voice to talk to them in a calm and reassuring manner, and that also calms them down. And then give them time to react and adapt to the actual test.

Perhaps (it’s) going to different sites and having to work with what they provide us. Every site is different in terms of the size, the location of the swabbing area, so you have to go there and make a decision pronto. And take into account the safety of everyone involved -- the MOM staff, the SAF staff, and all the foreign workers as well. So that’s quite a challenge.

I think one of the sites that were quite challenging was one of the hotel sites because the people there were actually on quarantine and we had to go room to room rather than gathering them at the open area. So when you actually go in, room to room, it’s a little bit more challenging. And quite a few of them are obviously sick, you know what I mean? So you have to be even more careful. I mean we are already very careful, but I mean it’s just a little more fearful especially when you go room to room, step into their room itself rather than at the open area outside. Then you have to go floor by floor, so that was a bit tricky.