SINGAPORE – The Changi Exhibition Centre, home of the Singapore Airshow, received its first batch of Covid-19 patients on Saturday (April 25).
About 50 patients with mild symptoms are now at the Community Isolation Facility, with their meals served by robots.
The facility’s large indoor capacity of 33,000 sq m allows it to house about 2,700 patients.
This is more than five times that of the first Community Isolation Facility at D’Resort NTUC in Pasir Ris.
It has the capacity to expand further if necessary, tapping another 75,000 sq m of outdoor space, the facility’s executive committee said during a tour of the site on Friday.
The facility is managed by hotel Mandarin Oriental Singapore, and has 52 jet blowers to ensure the area remains well ventilated while the temperature is kept at 28 to 29 deg C.
The patients’ living quarters are equipped with Wi-Fi access, fans, beds and storage cabinets.
Welcome packs, which include essentials such as hand sanitiser, detergent and toiletries, are distributed to each patient.
To save up for his wedding in December last year, GrabFood rider Muhammad Alif Mohd Jasmin worked seven days a week the month before.
The 30-year-old says he made around $5,000 that month, clocking 30 trips a day.
But while it is an achievable target, he cautions it is not sustainable in the long run.
“I had a motivation to achieve a target,” he says.
Mr Alif, who has been doing deliveries for GrabFood since late 2018, usually covers the town area and does 25 trips a day on his motorcycle.
He targets to hit at least 15 orders from 8am to 2pm.
“Whatever I achieve after that is a bonus,” he adds.
With people staying home and more ordering food, hitting 20 deliveries a day is not hard these days.
Earlier this week, food delivery platform Deliveroo reported that its top-earning rider raked in $7,095 last month. It explained that this would require the rider to work an average of 11 hours a day and earn an average of $21 an hour – more than the usual average of $17 an hour.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 931 new coronavirus cases in Singapore today (April 26). The vast majority of the cases involve work permit holders residing in dormitories.
15 cases are Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
This brings the total number of cases to 13,624, with 1,002 patients discharged and 12 deaths.
MOH is still working through the details of the cases, and will share further updates tonight.
SINGAPORE: If you’re working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, you may have more free time available as you no longer have to commute to work.
I have been jogging since I was in secondary school and I jog more than ever now as an adult to keep fit.
I’ve learned the following tips over years of trial and error, and they should work for most people.
JOGGING IS NOT ABOUT PAIN
I have a theory that many Singaporeans dislike jogging because of the physical tests we had to endure in school, and for the guys, in National Service.
Back then, we were forced to run 2.4km at a really fast pace. If you weren’t running at a pace that would make your heart feel like bursting (about 10 to 12 minutes for the distance), you would fail the overall test.
I believe this has created the wrong mindset with many people. If your only experience with jogging is this ridiculously strenuous run, why would you ever think that jogging is enjoyable?
My advice is to forget that 2.4km running test. Jogging can be a leisure activity. You don’t actually have to run fast at all.
GO AS SLOWLY AS YOU LIKE
Unless you are training for the dreaded 2.4km test or some other race, you can jog as slowly as you like.
Jogging is about getting your heart rate up. This in turns builds cardiovascular health, overall immunity – and as a bonus, a nice, clear complexion.
How slowly can you jog? It varies by age, but for middle-aged guys like me (I’m 44 this year), seven minutes per kilometre is ideal.
Five or six minutes per kilometre is too fast – someone running at this pace will look pained, and will experience a fast to moderate buildup of lactic acid.
Eight minutes per kilometre is slow, but still good. A jogger will be able to go a really long distance at this relaxing pace.
IT’S NOT THE SPEED ANYWAY, IT’S THE DISTANCE
Many people jog to burn calories, especially after a sinful meal. When it comes to burning calories, distance matters much more than speed.
Whether you run at high or low speeds over 2.4km, you still burn about the same 150kCal – about the amount of calories in a can of Coke. You would need to jog for at least 4km to 5km before your body burns a decent amount of calories.
That’s why I jog at least 6km each time – it doesn’t take too long and it burns about 375kCal, the equivalent of a light meal.
BUT START WITH VERY SHORT DISTANCES FIRST
If you haven’t been jogging regularly, you should start with very short distances. I’m talking 400m to 500m first, not even 1km.
This is because any form of running is a high-impact sport and you need to get your feet and legs acclimatised first.
Take your time to increase your distance. When I first got back to regular jogging in the late 2000s, I kept at the 2km limit for over a year. It wasn’t till years later that I gradually increased the distance to 6km, as my body got used to jogging.
(Photo: Pexels/Ree)
There’s also no need to do much stretching or warm-up. Some stretching exercises may even result in injury if done incorrectly. Just start jogging and go at a comfortable pace.
If you do feel any strain in your legs or feet, slow down dramatically and try to identify the source of the pain. It is often caused by poor fitting shoes or shoes with poor ergonomics.
I won’t go into the right type of shoes to wear here, except that you should get the lightest possible running shoe. You will recognise them by the slight arch of the sole curving up towards the toe area.
Avoid cross-trainers, basketball shoes, tennis shoes, walkers and other non-running shoes. And the price of the shoe doesn’t matter, so don’t buy the most expensive one.
Recording your running data – that is, your speed and distance covered– is an incredibly strong motivator to keep running regularly. So what’s the best way to measure your jogging speed and distance?
Using a GPS running watch will help automate the data collection. But if not, you could use a simple stopwatch too, though you’d have to record your running times and distance manually.
JOGGING IS NOT THE SAME AS WALKING
I like walking.
I’m a big proponent of walking 10,000 steps a day, even though it was originally designed as a Japanese marketing campaign for pedometers. 10,000 steps equates to about 8km distance and is good for blood circulation.
However, from my experience, casual walking does not provide the same health benefits as jogging. Even if you were to jog very slowly, you will elevate your heart rate more, sweat more and drive more blood circulation.
If your goal were to burn fat, jogging covers the same distance in half the time and burn two times more calories per minute.
BREATHE SLOWLY, NOT FAST
A misconception about jogging is that you need to breathe frantically to demonstrate you are exerting effort. It’s the same as how some people begin sprinting at the starting line of a mass run, and then get exhausted after a few hundred meters – and get overtaken by the steady joggers.
But breathe slowly and smoothly, and you will find that you will be running several paces with each breath.
This is important as when you artificially try to breathe too fast, you actually over-exert your lungs. Jogging should be relaxing and so should your breathing.
And don’t swing your arms too much. Momentum is good, but just don’t flail wildly and keep your head straight looking forward to minimise energy wastage.
Technically, if you don’t jog long distances each time, you can jog daily without any harm to your body.
However, for most people, I recommend having a day of rest in between each jog.
This means that you should jog three to four times a week. Two times a week is okay, but it’s not going to be much use if burning calories is your primary goal.
And oh yes, please jog when the weather is cool. I always think people who jog in the tropical noon heat are crazy.
(Photo: Pixabay/StockSnap)
CAN I STILL RUN OUTDOORS IN SINGAPORE?
Singapore’s circuit breaker rules allow for outdoor exercise – but not in groups. Those exercising outdoors are reminded to maintain a safe distance from others, and to stay in their neighbourhoods.
While wearing a mask outdoors is compulsory now, you don’t need to wear one if you’re running or jogging. You must put one on once you stop or resume walking, however.
Stay safe and healthy.
Ian Tan is a sales and marketing professional, former journalist and author of the book Anyone Can Lose Weight. This commentary is an abridged version of the author’s blog post.
SINGAPORE: It is known as home to the biennial Singapore Airshow, but the sprawling Changi Exhibition Centre (CEC), has been repurposed into a community isolation facility to house recovering COVID-19 patients and early patients displaying mild symptoms of the disease. It accepted its first 50 or so patients on Saturday (Apr 25).
Most of the patients it is expected to house are foreign workers.
The sprawling Changi Exhibition Centre (CEC), has been repurposed into a community isolation facility – the third of its kind in Singapore. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
A man carries supplies to furnish rooms in the CEC facility, a day before the first patients arrive. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
The remodelled indoor facility can accommodate about 2,700 patients. There is an option to increase its capacity to up to 4,400 patients by expanding into the outdoor area, which is currently undergoing construction.
The outdoor area, which is still under construction, will be able to house another 1,700 patients. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
The CEC is the third community isolation facility in Singapore, joining D’Resort NTUC in Pasir Ris and the Singapore Expo. D’Resort NTUC in Pasir Ris is able to take in about 500 people, while the Singapore Expo facility can take double that capacity.
CNA got a behind-the-scenes look at the CEC facility in a media tour on Friday, a day before the first patients were admitted, and got a glimpse of technology used to minimise the risk of infection.
An overhead view of the beds lined up in partitioned rooms for COVID-19 patients at the Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Rooms for COVID-19 patients being prepared at the Changi Exhibition Centre. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
The CEC facility’s operations are managed by Mandarin Oriental Singapore and healthcare services are provided by Raffles Medical Group. It was set up by a task force comprising nine MINDEF-affiliated organisations along with partners such as the Dormitory Association of Singapore, Experia Events and Surbana Jurong.
THE THREE ZONES
For the safety of medical workers and other essential staff, the combined indoor and outdoor areas of the 108,000 sq metre CEC facility have been demarcated into three different zones – red, yellow, and green.
The green, yellow, and red zones of the 108,000 sq metre Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility. (Image: MINDEF)
Patients reside in the red zone and are free to move about the space which comprises of their living areas, toilets, laundry facilities and a medical centre. Only authorised personnel such as medical workers and essential maintenance crew donning personal protective equipment (PPE) are allowed to enter the red zone.
Inside the CEC’s red zone, patients will have access to toilet, shower and laundry facilities. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Clear signs are posted in every sector of the Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility to help guide patients to amenities. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
The yellow zone serves as a barrier of sorts to the red zone, where personnel and their PPE are subjected to strict checks before they are allowed to come into contact with the patients. Upon exiting the red zone, all personal belongings and equipment will be disinfected in the yellow zone before these can be brought into the green zone.
The green zone is for personnel to work and rest when they are not inside the red zone. No PPE is required within this area.
PATIENT MANAGEMENT AND MEDICAL CARE
The facility will see two shifts per day, with 20 to 30 doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants from Raffles Medical Group during each shift. They will provide round-the-clock care for patients through teleconsultations, sick parades, and ward rounds.
Medical personnel simulate taking a patient’s vitals. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
As the number of patients in the facility increases, the manpower for healthcare professionals is also expected to scale up.
To help minimise the risk for cross-contamination, consultations via teleconsultation stations placed around the red zone will be used to diagnose patients who present persistent symptoms. For serious cases, patients can do physical consultations with a doctor at the on-site medical centre.
In case of an emergency, patients will also have access to emergency buttons located in various sectors to alert the operations and medical centres. An emergency hotline is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for patients to call.
In the event that a patient’s condition deteriorates significantly, the medical centre is equipped to stabilise patients before they are transferred to Changi General Hospital.
In case of an emergency, medical buggies stationed around the CEC help doctors to transport patients from their rooms to the medical centre quickly. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Patients are also required to practice routine monitoring of their health through the blood pressure machines and pulse oximeters placed in every sector of the living area.
They will have to conduct health checks on their own three times a day and submit information such as their temperature, blood pressure, and pulse reading through an app. This data will then be automatically submitted to the medical team for routine monitoring.
Swabbing stations have also been set up on site to test patients for COVID-19. Upon word from the Ministry of Health (MOH), patients who have tested negative and are deemed fully recovered will be transferred out of the CEC facility to be discharged. LIVING INSIDE THE RED ZONE
When patients arrive at the CEC, they will be received by security officers to verify identification details before being escorted to check-in and undergo a medical check-up.
When patients first arrive at the CEC facility, they will have to check-in and undergo a medical check-up. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
A medical worker at the Changi Exhibition Centre community isolation facility. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Patients with symptoms will be tagged with a red wristband, while recovering patients will have white wristbands.
Upon arriving, patients will be handed a white wristband or a red wristband to indicate their health status. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
In addition to a welcome video, patients will also receive a “welcome kit” with an orientation information sheet, toiletries, washing detergent, hand sanitiser, oral thermometer and face masks.
Each patient will receive a welcome kit. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Patients will live with others in a partition room that has eight to ten beds, power sockets, Wi-Fi access, fans and storage cabinets. Every single patient will have a 6 sq metre area to themselves, which is bigger than the 4 sq metres they normally get in dormitories.
Items like toiletries, hand sanitiser and face masks are included in each patient’s welcome kit. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Each partition room has eight to ten beds, power sockets, Wi-Fi access, fans and storage cabinets. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
To help keep patients occupied, they will be added to a Telegram channel whose name translates to “Second Home” in Bengali, Tamil and Mandarin. It will broadcast messages in those languages and in English and help involve them in daily virtual programmes such as Fitness By Your Bed and Afternoon Online Matinees. Patients will have free access to programmes on Mediacorp’s MeWatch.
The bed spacing within rooms takes in consideration safe distancing requirements. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Through the use of roving telepresence robots that are remote-controlled, volunteers who can speak the various Indian languages will also engage with patients virtually.
Patients will be provided with three Halal meals daily, with a selection of Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese and vegetarian cuisines.
Currently, five ST Engineering STrobo Tug robots have been deployed to the Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility and there are plans to progressively increase this to 12 robots. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
ST Engineering STrobo Tug robots will help to distribute food to the various sectors of the red zone at the Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
To minimise physical contact between facility staff and patients, meals will first be delivered into an air pressure chamber in the yellow zone before ST Engineering STrobo Tug robots distribute food to the various sectors of the zone.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday that recovering from the disease Covid-19 may not protect people from reinfection as governments around the world start to ease restrictions to revive economies battered by weeks of closure.
While global Covid-19 deaths have climbed past 197,000, new reported cases appear to have levelled off at about 80,000 a day.
Italians are awaiting a decision this weekend about which of its restrictions will be lifted and they will probably be allowed to leave their homes freely for the first time since March 9 by early next month, reported Agence France-Presse.
Sri Lanka said it would lift a nationwide curfew tomorrow after more than five weeks, as Belgium joined other European nations to announce an easing from the middle of next month.
Singapore, where tightened circuit breaker measures will last till June 1, also had a respite with yesterday’s announcement of 618 new cases, reflecting a general downward trend since the 1,426 new cases last Monday.
Most of yesterday’s new cases – 597 to be exact – involved foreign workers living in dormitories.
SINGAPORE – A 42-year-old woman who spat at a KFC worker has been arrested under charges of creating a public nuisance, the police said on Saturday (April 25).
The incident happened at the KFC outlet at Nex shopping mall on Wednesday.
Investigations showed that the woman had an argument with a member of the service staff at the outlet when she was told to wait for her order, the police said.
The woman was unhappy with the wait, and she shouted and spat at the staff.
She had already left the outlet when the police arrived but officers from the Ang Mo Kio Police Division established her identity and subsequently arrested her on Friday.
Police investigations are ongoing.
“The police are also looking at possible breaches of Covid-19 circuit breaker measures committed by the woman,” police said.
The offence of causing public nuisance carries a fine of up to $2,000.
If the offender knew that the act would cause or would probably cause injury to others, the person could be jailed for up to three months and fined up to $2,000.
SINGAPORE: The digital space is a double-edged sword for social media influencer Christabel Chua.
It is where she sells lifestyle products and advertises to her 250,000-plus followers. But it is also where her biggest nightmare played out — when someone hacked into her ex-boyfriend’s cloud storage space in 2018 and leaked their sex videos online.
“I had people just sharing (them), blatantly and mindlessly. And when you hear of such things, you do feel very hurt … You wouldn’t wish it upon anyone,” she said.
“There were comments (like), ‘I hope she kills herself, I hope she dies’ … It replays in your head non-stop.”
The videos were shared on porn websites, forums and social media platforms. “You assume that the worst wouldn’t happen. But the worst might happen, and can happen,” added Chua, who is better known by her online moniker @bellywellyjelly.
Christabel Chua.
The 29-year-old is a victim of non-consensual pornography, which refers to intimate images being leaked on the Internet without consent.
The problem is on the rise in Singapore, and the programme Undercover Asia finds out if anything can be done to stem the spread. (Watch the episode here.)
MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
The number of image-based sexual abuse cases seen by the Association of Women for Action and Research has doubled from 30 in 2016 to 64 in 2018. These include upskirting and revenge pornography.
Many more reports have been made to the police: For example, about 230 voyeurism cases involving hidden cameras in 2017, up from some 150 cases in 2013.
Nicole Lim, who tackles sexual harassment issues on her podcast, Something Private, learned about the harms of non-consensual porn while researching an episode — and has since kept track of the platforms spreading it.
Much of the content makes its way to porn websites, but some of it turns up on social media networks and chat groups, such as Tumblr and Telegram.
“Reddit’s a very popular place for people to share this kind of information. Another one that I’ve seen a lot of is Twitter,” cited Lim. “It’s graphic, literally everything is there, and there are a few thousand views.”
One of the most brazen examples is the SG Nasi Lemak Telegram group. It is no longer accessible but is said to have had more than 44,000 members, some of whom were sharing obscene photos and videos of women.
In October, four males were charged with distributing obscene materials, including upskirt photos, through this chat group.
“Non-consensual porn is definitely on the rise,” said Lim. “It can be attributed to several factors; the very big factor is technology.”
In many cases, hidden cameras are used to capture voyeur porn. And because victims often do not know a camera is pointed at them, there are more who have fallen prey than the numbers reported.
Spy camera manufacturer John Seng said the cameras have become smaller, and their video resolution much better.
“Most of the spy cams sold in the market are used for the wrong reasons: By … electronic peeping toms for upskirt filming. I’d say more than 90 per cent,” he added.
While the installation of hidden cameras is not illegal in Singapore, those who film a private act without consent can be jailed for up to two years, and may also be caned or fined.
VICTIMS FIGHTING BACK
Undercover Asia infiltrated several platforms frequented by voyeurs, some of whom boasted about the collection of videos they had secretly filmed.
One regular contributor, “Kinis”, who identified himself as a Singaporean, uploaded at least 35 upskirt videos in the prior three months. He shared how he took the videos, for example cautioning against getting too close to the victim.
He also said he had close shaves but was never caught. Asked if the risk was worth it, he replied: “After watching so many upskirt videos, it’s worth it to get your own.”
Some victims, however, are fighting back — like Elicia Yeo, who helped to crack the SG Nasi Lemak case with Benjamin Tang.
Her photos on social media were posted in the chat group, where members made sexual comments about her. Tang, meanwhile, wanted to help a friend who was affected similarly. So both joined the group to get those photos removed.
Both were shocked to find thousands of images of women, dressed and undressed. “They even taught you how to secretly take photos of girls, upskirt … Every second someone was posting something,” said Yeo, who made a police report.
Tang, a tech expert, programmed bots to join the group to collect information about the members, which he handed to the police. “These photos were being used in a manner that people definitely couldn’t have consented to,” he said.
Taking matters into her own hands was something undergraduate Monica Baey did last April, when she used social media to call for tougher action against the perpetrator who filmed her in the shower.
The police had given Nicholas Lim a 12-month conditional warning, and his university had suspended him for a semester. He ended up receiving a barrage of online harassment, but Baey stood by her decision.
“I don’t owe it to him to keep his name private. Too many perpetrators go unnamed, and get away with sexual assault because their victims feel bad,” she posted on Instagram.
“I want him to realise … how badly you can mess a person up just by filming them without their consent.”
Non-consensual porn also includes digitally altering someone’s image in a sexually offensive way. Gia Lim is all too familiar with the trauma this brings.
She was preparing for her O Levels in 2015 when she discovered edited photos of herself on a Tumblr blog, accompanied by “sexually degrading” captions about her “going around and giving sexual favours”.
“None of this is true,” she said. “It made me feel very, very sick.”
She later discovered that one of her closest male friends had posted the content, but she was too distressed to pursue the matter.
She has since given talks about her experience as a victim of non-consensual porn and is working with the Education Ministry to raise awareness of this issue in schools.
TOUGH TO ENFORCE
Last year, Parliament passed the Criminal Law Reform Bill, in which sexual offences brought about by technological advances — such as voyeurism and “cyber flashing” — became criminalised.
But the changes might be tough to enforce. Lawyer Adam Maniam from Drew and Napier thinks it would be unrealistic to expect the authorities to have the resources to investigate and prosecute all of these cases.
“Even if the person who’s committed the act is convicted,” he said, “the content … could still be hosted on various sites that are international.
“So even if the court were empowered to order these sites to take down the material, there could still be issues with enforcing.”
There are, however, companies that can help victims remove their digital footprint. Lawmence Wong, regional director of Internet Removal Asia in Kuala Lumpur, said his team can usually remove 80 per cent of the links within two to four weeks.
But there is no guarantee that the content stays removed for good. “This is something out of our control,” he said. “If the website is restructured … it might appear again. So it’s important to have a monitoring process.”
Content removal is not cheap either: Each link can cost between S$300 and S$550 to remove. And for many victims, the damage is already done, with lasting effects.
Lim likened the process of removing such content to a digital whack-a-mole, whereby “you think you really got it, then there’s one more that pops up somewhere else”.
“I’ve done almost everything that I could,” she said. “I either struggle or I have to, in some ways, let it go … It’s time to move on.”
For Chua, even though the hacker who had stolen and circulated her private videos was arrested, there is no closure.
“The Internet is ever-living. So I wouldn’t say that there’d be a day when you can’t find anything any more, whether it’s for me (or) anyone else,” she said.
“One of the hardest things to accept is that they’ll always be there.”
Watch this episode here. Undercover Asia is telecast on Saturdays at 9pm.
SINGAPORE: The COVID-19 “circuit breaker” measures could delay construction projects by months, contractors said, predicting a manpower crunch when they eventually try to clear the backlog.
Contractors said they will speed up work after the circuit breaker is lifted by deploying more workers to job sites. But they said this will prove difficult, with limited manpower and little chance of adding workers from abroad due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Even then, the contractors stated that projects might not immediately resume as manufacturers of construction materials will need time to restart processes. Any resumption of work will also depend on the condition of workers, they added.
Thousands of foreign workers in Singapore – a number of whom work in the construction industry – have contracted COVID-19, making up a majority of the country’s cases in recent days.
Since Apr 7, all construction work has been halted as part of the Government’s circuit breaker measures to minimise further spread of the virus. On Tuesday (Apr 21), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the measures will be extended by a month to Jun 1.
Contractors that CNA spoke to days before the announcement said they have no doubt that construction projects will be pushed back.
Singapore Contractors Association (SCAL) president Ng Yek Meng said projects have been delayed since the start of the outbreak near the end of January, as China locked down its cities which disrupted the flow of labour and materials to Singapore.
Then in March, the situation worsened as Malaysia imposed its own lockdown, he said, halting the supply of pre-cast concrete components and other construction materials.
“To date, we expect the delays to be about three to six months,” he added. “However, it can be longer depending on how the COVID-19 situation evolves and the measures taken to contain the spread.”
Construction workers wait to cross a street in Singapore. (Photo: AFP)
PQ Builders director Peh Ke-Pin suggested that projects will be delayed for another month after the circuit breaker is lifted, pointing out that construction material must first be produced.
“There’s a lead time for fabrication alone,” he said. “You need to start the kilns to manufacture cement, so the timelines will be affected.”
REVENUES HIT
While the delays might not be a problem contractually – the Government has legislated that contractors who cannot meet delivery deadlines due to COVID-19 are eligible for relief – some contractors will still try to avoid them.
The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act provides relief for the construction sector. (Infographic: Ministry of Law)
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has already said it will work with contractors to speed up construction of new flats after the circuit breaker is lifted.
“We will work closely with our contractors to track and monitor any impact on the progress of our projects,” HDB said on its website. “Should there be any delays in the completion, we will inform flat buyers accordingly.”
Construction workers in Singapore. (File photo: Ernest Chua/TODAY)
Ginlee Construction managing director Tommy Lim said delayed projects translate to lost income, especially as contractors progressively earn by completing different stages of a project.
A month without progress due to the circuit breaker would cost Mr Lim about S$400,000 in lost revenue across his 10 projects, which include commercial works like the expansion of a Google office in Singapore.
“As a contractor, you know that the more you drag, it’s not good for your overheads,” he explained. “If you can complete projects on time, you will cut down on overheads and make a profit.”
Overheads include building and equipment rentals, workers’ salaries as well as essential items like food and masks – costs that continue to add up even as construction sites remain at a standstill.
“From the bottom line angle, it’s a pain that everybody is going through,” Straits Construction executive director Kenneth Loo said. “The Government support eases it a bit, but it can never be eliminated.”
File photo of a construction site in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
According to SCAL, the construction sector has contracted 4.3 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, “with practically no revenue” during the circuit breaker period.
The Government has tried to help businesses hit by COVID-19 through a slew of measures, including foreign worker levy waivers, property tax rebates and bridging loans for small and medium enterprises.
SCAL’s Mr Ng said more help from the Government and industry stakeholders is always welcome. “Contractors are concerned with their cash flow and the ability to sustain the company through this difficult time,” he added.
MANPOWER CRUNCH
So when job sites finally re-open, Mr Lim believes that most contractors will try to speed up work to meet deadlines. This is done by adding more workers and machines.
“I can put in an extra one or two teams of three workers each, and add one or two sets of machinery,” he said.
Construction workers from Bangladesh and India attend a briefing before starting work at a construction site in Singapore March 24, 2016. (File photo: REUTERS/Edgar Su)
But if this is multiplied across different projects, the contractors feel there won’t be enough manpower.
“When you rush after (the circuit breaker is lifted) and you have a limited timeline, you might eventually need to add 100 per cent to your workforce,” Mr Peh said.
“That kind of requirement is very difficult to meet, because in this period of time we can’t increase workers (from abroad) anyway.”
The Ministry of Manpower will only allow the entry of work pass holders into Singapore for those providing essential services, such as in healthcare and transport.
While contractors can outsource their foreign manpower needs, Mr Lim and Mr Peh said these “general workers” are usually not very skilled and only serve to make up numbers, especially when specialist machinery is involved.
To avoid these problems, Mr Lim said he has applied for a waiver to resume work on a number of projects he is involved in that might be considered essential, including work to operationalise Changi Airport’s Runway 3 by October.
The Changi Airport Group said on its website that work is ongoing to connect Runway 3 to the airport’s two existing runways, before Runway 2 is temporarily closed for the next phase of infrastructure works for the Changi East project.
A view of Changi Airport. (File photo: Changi Airport Group)
Building and Construction Authority (BCA) regulations state that only works necessary to maintain the job site – like stabilising structures and controlling mosquito breeding – can continue during the circuit breaker.
“I really hope that within (this circuit breaker) I can resume whatever work,” Mr Lim said, adding that this will have to be done in accordance with strict health and safe distancing measures. “If I can finish one job, then it’s one less problem.”
CNA has contacted BCA for comment.
File photo of construction workers erecting scaffolding in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
While contractors can make plans to start work as soon possible, Straits Construction’s Mr Loo said “at the end of the day, it depends on resources in the market”.
“Everybody will try to do their utmost best to meet their obligations,” he said. “Having said that, the workers’ condition and whether the borders will be open – whether materials and workers can come in – after the circuit breaker is still a question mark.”
STUCK IN DORMS
Still, Mr Loo said his staff are in touch with a few hundred of his foreign workers to ensure their mental health is fine during these difficult times.
A dorm resident at Cochrane Lodge 1 on Admiralty Road West. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
Twenty-five foreign worker dormitories have been declared as isolation areas to stem the outbreak, meaning tens of thousands of workers are barred from leaving their rooms for two weeks.
Workers in all dorms also cannot leave the premises as part of tighter measures imposed on Tuesday.
“I think mental well-being is crucial,” Mr Loo said. “There is a need to make sure workers are well-informed and mentally prepared.”
Mr Lim said his staff have taken to Zoom to address workers’ needs and allay their concerns about not being paid during the circuit breaker.
A dorm resident seen sitting along the corridors of The Leo dormitory at Kaki Bukit Road on Monday (Apr 20) (Photo: Jeremy Long)
He said his workers, 40 of whom stay in the Leo Dormitory, prefer to work.
“I told them don’t worry, we will pay you,” he added. “We want you to take this opportunity to rest also, because we expect that two to three months after the lockdown, you will be very busy.”
The concerns are slightly different for Mr Peh, who has one worker with COVID-19. His 120 workers live in Tuas View Dormitory, which has been declared as an isolation area.
Mr Peh’s staff and workers also use Zoom to check in on the patient, who has been moved to a community isolation facility at the Singapore Expo after his condition improved.
A foreign worker inside Mandai Lodge 1 on Wednesday (Apr 22). The dorm has been gazetted as an isolation area to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
“We couldn’t contact him previously, so we were so worried that his handphone battery was flat,” he said.
“We bought a charging adaptor and cable and sent it to the hospital. We found that he had been discharged, so I got my supervisor to send it to Expo.”
“We cannot let the workers feel deserted,” he added.
SINGAPORE: Five weeks from now, if the number of daily COVID-19 cases in the community falls to single digits and the situation in the foreign worker dormitories improves, “circuit breaker” measures in Singapore may ease gradually, experts said.
Key indicators of whether Singapore is in a position to consider such a move include the number of new community cases falling to single digits per day and a “very clear decline” in new cases in the dormitories, said Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health dean Teo Yik Ying.
Besides a fall in the total number of cases, the number of unlinked cases should go down to near zero, added Professor Paul Tambyah of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.
Another indicator of community transmission of the coronavirus would be the numbers from the Health Ministry’s surveillance programmes. Such random testing of flu-like illnesses in the community aims to pick up cases that otherwise would not have not been detected.
“The key is to look at the sentinel surveillance data – from the influenza-like illness surveillance done in polyclinics and general practitioner clinics – to see how much coronavirus is circulating in the community, as well as pneumonia surveillance in hospitals,” said Prof Tambyah.
Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Thursday said the sentinel programme is an example of how authorities are trying to “preempt the situation going forward”.
“For example at this point in time, while the numbers are coming down, we are also making sure that we have background sentinel checks to make sure that we are not caught blindsided by some other hidden cases in the community,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday that authorities have been picking up COVID-19 cases from its surveillance, and that was one of the reasons Singapore’s circuit breaker was extended to Jun 1. “This indicates that there is continued seeding in the community, many of them undetected because their symptoms are mild but they are still infectious,” he said.
Earlier that day, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised address that Singapore’s circuit breaker would be extended from May 4 to Jun 1. Authorities also announced tighter measures, two weeks after Singapore closed most workplaces and schools.
As of Saturday (Apr 25), Singapore has reported 12,693 cases of COVID-19 in total, with 1,002 patients fully recovered and discharged. The majority of the cases have been found in migrant worker dormitories, while cases in the general population have been levelling off.
The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 31 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 23 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 21 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 15 per day in the past week.
The number of new cases among work permit holders living outside dormitories has continued to increase, from an average of 21 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 26 per day in the past week.
A lone passerby walks past a street of shuttered shops in the sweltering afternoon heat in Chinatown. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
While the average number of daily cases in the community has fallen from the start of the circuit breaker, the number was still high, said Prof Teo on Thursday when asked why the circuit breaker was extended.
Infectious diseases expert Dr Piotr Chlebicki said that the number of community cases should include work permit holders living outside dormitories – which would make the number of community cases even higher. “If migrant workers are living in the community, for all practical purposes, they are community cases,” said Dr Chlebicki, who runs the Infectious Diseases Medical Clinic at Mount Alvernia Hospital.
Beyond the total number, experts are also concerned about the number of unlinked cases even after contact tracing.
“The unlinked cases are the concern as we would have hoped that these would have gone down significantly with the circuit breaker measures,” said Prof Tambyah.
Prof Teo said that one of the reasons for the extension of the circuit breaker to Jun 1 was that the origin of some of the transmissions were from workers in essential services, including those in the food & beverage sector and in construction. “It is more prudent to extend the circuit breaker to resolutely contain the situation in all segments in Singapore, than to risk easing the circuit breaker prematurely only for the outbreak to flare up again,” he said.
Along with the extension, Singapore also announced that essential services would be further limited, and hair salons as well as some food outlets have had to suspend operations from Wednesday. In addition, foreign workers have been confined to their dormitories and large numbers of workers in construction and their dependents have been put on mandatory stay-home notices from Apr 20 to May 4.
“AGGRESSIVE TESTING”
Mr Gan has also said that as the country eases circuit breaker measures, it will need to increase testing capability, to make sure that there is no community spread of the virus.
“In order to make sure that there’s no transmission in the community, we need to test a lot more,” he said at a virtual press conference held on Tuesday by the multi-ministerial task force tackling COVID-19.
Mr Chan made a similar point in on Thursday, saying: “We hope that in a month’s time we will be able to progressively reopen the economy with much more testing for the entire population and at the same time to take on additional safe distancing measures.”
Dr Chlebicki said that one of the objectives of the extending the circuit breaker could be to ramp up testing to see if infections are really decreasing in the community. If there is more testing, then “most people with respiratory symptoms should be able to be tested to see whether they really have COVID -19 or another respiratory tract infection”, he said.
Testing in the worker dormitories, where the outbreak has surged in recent weeks, has already accelerated and is one of the reasons Singapore’s case numbers have shot up, sometimes by more than 1,000 cases a day.
Prof Teo said that actively testing for people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, serves two purposes. Identifying infected people early on means they can be isolated and treated early, and contact tracing can be done to isolate other people who may have been infected by them. Also, because asymptomatic infection can happen, Singapore needs to “cast a wider net and test aggressively in the community”, beyond those that exhibit symptoms.
“This is the reason why the World Health Organization has identified testing capacity as an important element to consider prior to easing any measures to allow community and economic activity to resume,” he said.
NO “HAPPILY EVER AFTER”
Even if the signs are all positive, there may not be an immediate lifting of all the measures enacted during the circuit breaker period.
“I actually hope we will have a graduated easing of the different measures,” Prof Teo said.
Mask wearing and safe-distancing requirements, for example, are likely to remain for the foreseeable future even after Jun 1, along with restrictions on large gatherings, said Prof Teo. School may resume but workers from sectors that do not require them to be physically present are likely to continue working from home.
“F&B outlets may need to endure further hardship for a while longer by allowing for only takeaways and delivery, and not dining in – but a bright spot will be bubble tea outlets and McDonald’s should be able to resume takeaway and delivery options,” he added.
LiHo bubble tea outlet shut on Apr 22, 2020 after tighter circuit breaker measures were announced. (Photo: Hanidah Amin)
Other experts also warned about opening up the country too quickly. By trying to keep transmissions to the lowest level possible, Singapore would be prioritising people’s well-being over the economy, said Dr Chlebicki. “In the end, it will not be the situation where 1st June we will wake up and: No more virus, and we will be living happily ever after,” he said.
When asked if there are models around the world which Singapore can look to, Prof Teo said that many countries are experimenting and taking tentative steps.
“I do not think there is a rule book that countries can follow,” he said.
Infectious diseases expert Annelies Wilder-Smith said that every country is using different criteria, depending on the epidemiological and economic situation as well as cultural background.
“For China, they kept the lockdown for four weeks after the last new case. Hong Kong is doing the same,” said the visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
“Europe will loosen the lockdown as soon as the curve has flattened and there is a consistent decline in new cases and hospitalisations for at least two weeks, but every country within Europe has some nuanced differences.”
“SNEAKY” VIRUS
That circuit breaker measures can be lifted as scheduled is based on the assumption that there are no new transmission chains.
However, Dr Piotr pointed out that any crowded place could be a concern.
“This virus is quite sneaky and it will uncover any blind spots sooner or later,” he said.
A dorm resident at Cochrane Lodge 1 on Admiralty Road West. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
Prof Teo said that potential hot spots could be “vulnerable and often-overlooked population segments”, including care homes, nursing homes and orphanages.
“Equally we need to think about other population segments such as prisons, military camps and outfits, mental health institutions … as well as an often-overlooked group such as commercial sex workers,” he said.
“Only by confronting some of the realities that societies have, can we, and other countries, properly and systematically identify any high-risk segment and put in place plans to protect these people.”
