What are the lessons that could be learnt from working at the COVID-19 quarantine zones?

Doctor's Answers 5

After seeing all these workers, to me, this is a necessity. It was important that we go in and test these workers because they are the core to our construction sites and developing Singapore. What I liked to see when I was working at the frontlines is how different agencies have actually all chipped in. Nobody complained -- the SAF guys, they don’t take a break, they work every day. Our nurses, our doctors, our volunteers, as well. It could be a public holiday and we’d still have a full sign-up list. So to me, that’s something that I cherish and I enjoy seeing these guys a lot. So to me, everybody wants to help, everybody wants to stop circuit breaker and go back to our normal lives again, and if this is what it takes to do it then let’s do it.

I think the most important lesson that we can pick up from here is that the disease is really contagious. It’s no joke. Our government is scared, I mean many governments are scared, and there is a reason for them to be scared. I think the contagiousness of the disease is something that is more apparent when you are actually there, when you are seeing sick patients. I think that is something that has brought it home. Because sometimes, when we are in our circuit breaker and we only go out to buy food and come back, you think that it is so troublesome (but you don’t see the full extent of it). So now that the government is going to do mass community testing, there have been talks about it, and I think that would be a good thing. We all as dentists, we can even participate in these mass community swabbing.

Something interesting that I’ve noticed is that we are all brothers. In the sense that we are all humans, and when the swab goes into the nose, it’s the same for everyone. It’s three and a half inches and it reaches the back of the throat. So we’re all the same. Foreign workers, Singaporeans, PRs. We are all the same. We are here for each other.

Something about what Raymond said about the (circuit breaker). When we are in the circuit breaker, we’re at home, we find it very inconvenient. But when we go out to the dorms, we go out to the sites, we see with our own eyes that it’s the weekday but everything’s so quiet. Everything’s shut down. There’s nobody walking around, there’s nobody working. And then we can see, my goodness, the impact on our economy. We’d always see the numbers later, you have already seen some of the numbers, but I’m sure the numbers will be bad. The contagiousness is -- the virus doesn't choose. It doesn’t choose (based on) how rich you are, how poor you are, what colour is your race, which country you’re from. They don’t choose. It doesn’t mean the circuit breaker starts tomorrow means the virus will only start infecting people tomorrow, or something like that. All that is nonsense. If you’re not careful, if you don’t take infection control properly, and social distancing (seriously), then you might end up getting the virus and spreading it to your loved ones.

I think it’s a summary of what everyone has said. Ultimately it’s this, this is real, and had I not gone to help in the factory-converted dorms, it would have never hit me. I would just be sitting at home, I’ll be bored, I’ll just be waiting for this 1st of June (4th of May), and say when is it all going to be over. But having been with everyone at the frontlines, I think what we are all concerned about is what’s going to happen on the 1st of June. If people don’t take this seriously -- what Badrun said, doesn’t matter what colour you are (and what race), we are all brothers. And (if) you are going to stand really close to the guy beside you, and you’re not going to wear a mask, this is going to get really bad really fast. Hopefully, there is some way that we can convey this message to everyone else who doesn’t have the privilege of helping out at the frontlines -- that this is a very serious issue and on the 1st of June if you don’t stick to the rules, then it’s going to get bad really fast again.

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