Saw many #QuarantineLife posts on Hive lately and was wondering why it was trending. And of course, 
I am from Singapore and I am glad to say that the government have not locked down the country or imposed any curfews. Therefore, I am not really under quarantine or "jailed" if you want to put it that way 😅. The government of Singapore is threading the situation very carefully. They know that announcing a full lockdown is quite detrimental to the people's morale and may cause public panic. Thus, their approach is to make it really inconvenient for us to go out and encourage us to stay home.
Encouraging "Work from home"
One of the measures the Singapore government imposed is to encourage all employers to allow working from home as much as possible. Companies that violate this may get penalized. As a result, most companies now allow their employees to work from home.
I have been working from home fully since this Monday and this is how my work desk looks like.
Nothing fancy, just a laptop, a second monitor, my trusty mug and a hand sanitizer.
Working from home is so far quite effective. Most if not all of my work can be done remotely and I am actually enjoying this arrangement. All meetings have been switched to web conferences and this kind of make meetings more efficient. In addition, I get to save close to 3 hours of commute time everyday as compared to getting to office everyday. So, nothing to complain about.
However, not every company can support working from home. Therefore, there are still many people who need to take additional risk to commute to work everyday. All these companies will probably have to make plans after this pandemic, if they can survive it.
I recently made a post on how this pandemic is forcing companies to rethink their business continuity plans. I think this meme pretty much sums it all up.
Social distancing
On top of encouraging work from home, the government here also took social distancing to a new level. Public areas and even restaurants have to comply with the 1 meter rule. Basically there should be at least a 1 meter gap between each homo sapien.
Source
This led to some interesting sights as you can see in the picture above, seats are "crossed out" and people are not supposed to sit on those seats. This is to keep a gap between people. As part of the social distancing guidelines, gathering of more than 10 people are also not allowed. You might be wondering what if you do not comply with the rules, be prepared to get fined or even jailed if you are caught 😂.
An account of someone who was quarantined in Singapore
Singapore do issue quarantine orders to those who have came into close contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases. We have so far been quite successful with our contact tracing and we even have an app for it. Our success in contact tracing is perhaps the reason why a full lockdown is not required... yet. Of course when things do get out of control, I won't be surprised to see more drastic measures.
All these measures and inconveniences that were imposed also have a psychological effect to remind Singaporeans to be more socially responsible and practice good personal hygiene. Hopefully, with everyone doing his/her part, we can control the outbreak and things can get back to normal soon.
Before I end this post, I will like to share an actual account of a Singaporean being quarantined. This was circulated over WhatsApp and I thought it will be good to share it with the folks on Hive too. Through this account, you can see how serious the Singapore government is with the quarantine orders.
The account starts from here,
Since Covid-19 is something new to us and it is spreading like wildfire, I thought it will benefit many by sharing what I have learnt from my personal experience. Some of you might have known that my son is Case 100. He has recovered and has returned home on 14 Mar.
My wife and I have also completed our 14 days quarantine order last Friday (13 Mar).
My son will be entering the university in August. As he was bored at home, he took up a part time job at Wizlearn Technologies. He was supposed to work until end of February. As fate would have it, he became one of the luckiest guys in Singapore.
On Wed (26 Feb), he was informed that someone in the building had contracted Covid-19. All the staff in his office were told to work from home from the following day. The next day, he told us he had a mild fever in the evening. We gave him some Panadols and he went to bed. The following morning, he said he still had a fever, so we asked him to visit a GP a few blocks away from our home. During his visit, he told the GP about his colleague at Wizlearn. The GP did an influenza test on him which turned out to be negative. 30 minutes after he arrived home, MOH called him and told him that an ambulance would be sent to fetch him to NCID for tests (if this was not efficiency, I don't know what it is!).
At the NCID, they did a nasal swab test at about 3pm. They told us he would be admitted for the night for observation and a subsequent test would be done the next morning. We were allowed to bring some clothing and personal belongings to him. MOH told us that we could only do this once. We were not allowed to see him. So we left the bag at the reception. MOH started contact tracing that very evening. My son told us to expect a call from MOH the next morning.
On Saturday morning (29 Feb), my son called us and told us that NCID had confirmed that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Within hours, MOH and subsequently, Cisco contacted us regarding the quarantine order. Two Cisco officers and a nurse came to our house to issue us the quarantine orders. The nurse handled us a thermometer and 2 pieces of face mask each. We were given a form for us to record our body temperature 3 times a day. The Cisco officers explained the conditions of the quarantine order to us in detail. Surprisingly, he was not able to answer several of our questions. He had to call his boss to seek clarification. He did tell us that the rules and regulations from MOH kept changing from time to time.
Here are some of the things we have learnt from the quarantine order -
(1) It was actually 13 days (not 14). Our quarantine order started on Saturday 29 Feb at 12 pm and it ended at 12 pm on Friday 13 Mar. We assumed the 14 days started on the last day we saw our son, which was on 28 Feb (last contact date).
(2) The government quarantine facility is only available to people who rent a room or stay in a dormitory. MOH will assess the application on case by case basis.
(3) MOH only provides food to those who stay in the government quarantine facility. For the rest of us quarantined at home, we have to depend on ourselves for our meals. We will be lucky to have kind neighbours or relatives and friends who are free and not working to send us food. Of course, the quarantine officers told us we could always order food from Grabfood and Deliveroo (expensive suggestion!).
(4) Each day, we received 3 Whatsapp video calls from an MOH officer. On certain days, 2 video calls and a surprise home visit by a Cisco officer. They called to check our body temperature and also to check on our health conditions, if we had any symptoms. On the first day, they asked us to show them 3 locations in our house which will be used to identify/ensure that we are good boy and girl (staying at home). The video calls were made by different people every time. Sometimes, it was a man. Sometimes, it was a lady. We could hear their voices but could not see their faces (We were always shown colourful walls and ceilings). It was very inconvenient. Sometimes, they called us at 7am when we were still sleeping.
On the same day we received the order, we were visited by an officer from the NEA. He issued us a bottle of Clorox, one face mask and a pair of gloves. An officer also called us later to inform us that they would provide a one time disposal of bio-hazardous waste. We were expecting someone from NEA to clean and disinfect our house. As it turned out, we were told to do it ourselves (hahaha).
My two other sons (the younger brothers of Case 100) stayed with us throughout our quarantine order. They usually stay in the dorm at ACSI from Monday to Friday. MOH contacted ACSI during contact tracing and the school sent them home on leave of absence (LOA) (they have no other place to go to) until further notice. They were not served any quarantine orders as the last time they saw their eldest brother was on Sunday, 23 Feb when he had not shown any symptoms. Under the condition of the LOA, they were allowed to go out for a short duration to pack food. They became our personal GrabFood.
My son (Case 100) had a bit of cough and a serious sore throat after his admission. However, throughout his admission, he was only given cough medicine and some lozenges. No other medication at all. Thankfully, he recovered on Sunday, 01 Mar (on the third day of his admission). My son’s symptoms were confined to only mild fever and 3 days of sore throat (making him one of the 80% of Covid-19 patients who only show mild symptoms). But he would only be discharged once he got two consecutive "negative" test results from his nasal swab. Finally, he got his “negative” results on Friday, 13 Mar and Saturday, 14 March. Upon discharge, the doctor told him that he now had zero chance of being re-infected as his body has already developed strong antibodies against the virus. It means he can walk out freely without wearing a mask. We are so envious of him. He said it was his reward after spending 16 days in isolation, eating only boiled and steamed food (not even one meal was served with fried food). He even went to the USS yesterday and told us that "there is no queue on any of the rides!"
I have learnt three important lessons from Covid-19:
(1) Freedom is something we always take for granted until you lose it. Cherish your freedom. You never know when you will be served a quarantine order.
(2) Stocking up of essentials is not a stupid thing to do. My wife had always insisted we must have all the basic necessities, groceries and cleaning agents stored away, in case of emergencies. Not to mention our three-tiered freezer was filled to the brim with frozen food. This availed us the welcomed option of fresh home cooked meals.
(3) Thank God for the internet. Otherwise, we would have been bored to death.
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