SINGAPORE: After a long day at work, all Lucy Chan wants to do is to put her feet up when she gets home.

But those moments of peace are often interrupted by her mother, Khoo Chwee Lye, whose mind might see-saw between happiness and anger within minutes. That unpredictability has been unnerving.

“When we have a busy day in the office, and you come home, and all you want to do is to just rest … she starts complaining about past events,” said Chan.

“It’s not recent, nothing (has) happened, but it’s just that she suddenly recollects not-so-nice memories, and then she’d start talking and crying. I think those days are very frustrating.”

Chan has to diffuse tensions at home almost weekly now because of her 76-year-old mother’s mood swings, six years after the latter was diagnosed with dementia.

Once independent and capable of having an active lifestyle, Khoo can no longer live alone — her daughter, son-in-law, four grandsons and a helper take turns to care for her.

In Singapore, dementia affects one in 10 people aged 60 years and above. This amounts to an estimated 82,000 people, a number set to rise beyond 100,000 by 2030.

READ: Nearly 3 in 4 persons with dementia in Singapore feel ashamed, rejected: Study

While most types of dementia cannot be cured, some of the symptoms can be managed. And through technology, caring for dementia patients can be made a little easier. The series Gadg(AID) looks at six ways of doing so. (Watch this episode here.)

1. USING VIRTUAL REALITY TO UNDERSTAND DEMENTIA

Many carers, even the professionals, tell Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA) senior programme coordinator Joanne Loy: “I don’t know what the dementia (sufferer) is thinking about (or) looking at.”

She has spent five years trying to bridge this gap. And it was only last year that the ADA introduced a virtual reality (VR) experience so carers could see the world through the eyes of a person living with dementia.

Participants put on a pair of VR goggles and take on the perspective of Edie, a person with dementia. The goal is to make one’s way through the house to the bathroom.

Chan even heard a hissing sound around her while using this tool. “It’s actually (their) delusions,” explained Loy. “They’re most of the time very sensitive to noise. Certain volumes are normal to us, but to them are considered as high-pitched.”

Also, the patterns on the VR wallpaper looked as if they were pulsating.

Regarding this, Loy said some dementia patients may have suffered damage to the occipital lobes, which process and interpret everything one sees. “As a result, they might feel very groggy,” she added.

The experience offered Chan what she thought was a “good” perspective to the world of dementia patients like her mother.

2. A WALKING STICK GETS SMART

Mood swings aside, Khoo also struggles with mobility issues. “She likes to go downstairs … and she doesn’t want to carry a stick. She doesn’t want people to know she needs that,” said her daughter.

Falling is not uncommon among dementia sufferers, many of whom report bouts of dizziness.

But seniors like her often see the walking stick as a symbol of shame. It is no surprise to Tan Lee Tuan, the founder of start-up Bekind Solutions, that some of them choose to wander around without one.

So he turned the walking stick into an accessory with a number of functions, including as a torch, an umbrella and an alarm that is activated if the user falls.

“(The) umbrella is a very natural way to camouflage a walking stick. Because in Singapore, it rains all the time, and it’s quite normal to carry an umbrella,” he said.

His invention, which took three years to develop, also has an in-built radio and MP3 functions. “There’s a lot of research about how music therapy can help to slow down the rate of dementia,” he cited.

When he first brought his smart cane to Khoo, she was not sold on the idea. “If I use this downstairs, everyone would stare at me. It’s not raining — why carry an umbrella?” she questioned.

A week later, however, she seemed happy with her new accessory and even used it when she went to church.

“Nice to use! If not … (would) I still go and walk every day?” she said. “My legs are weak, so I need this. If not, I can’t walk much.”

3. ANOTHER DEVICE TO DETECT FALLS MAY BE NEXT

At home, a webcam monitor’s Khoo’s movements. But it offers a restricted view and cannot be installed where privacy is needed. So it does not allay Chan’s fear of her mother falling and getting hurt.

A solution here may be found in SoundEye, which uses artificial intelligence to isolate and analyse the sounds a person would make in an emergency.

With its deep-learning sound recognition technology, the device can recognise abnormal sounds like screams, coughs and groans, said inventor Tan Yeow Kee. When those sounds are picked up, a sensor triggers an alert to the carer.

The device also has a motion sensor to detect whether a person is moving. “If you place this inside the washroom, for example, if the person … isn’t moving inside the washroom, we can detect that,” said Tan.

This device would be helpful to someone like Khoo and her family. But for now, it remains a work in progress.

4. STIMULATING THE BRAIN WITH PICTURES AND SOUND

The frustration of forgetting, coupled with audio and visual distortions, can cause stress and anxiety for dementia sufferers like Khoo.

Her grandson Samuel Law, who recently graduated with a diploma in psychological studies, was inspired to do a project about reminiscence therapy because of what his grandmother was going through.

Reminiscence therapy works by reviving long-lost memories for those with dementia, and the science behind it is essentially about stimulating parts of the brain that handle long-term memory.

Law pointed out that caregivers of dementia patients can show them pictures and items from their past, including clothes they used to wear, to help them remember things from the past and to boost their memory.

Not only can this help them feel some joy revisiting happy memories, it can also help reduce their stress, agitation and frustration.

Law’s tool-kit requires another person to interact with Khoo, but that is not always practical given that for most of the week, family members are either out at work or in school.

As a solution, programme host Preston Lim showed the family a reminiscence therapy book, which Khoo’s family could insert photographs into and even use to record audio messages for her.

Said Lim: “When your mum … hears the message that someone has recorded for her and (is) associated with this specific memory, hopefully this would be useful to help her remember things from the past.”

Chan felt that the book would be helpful, as her mother likes to flip through photo albums at home. “Sometimes she does look at the photos. Maybe she’s thinking of the past,” she added.

5. USING VIRTUAL REALITY TO TRIGGER MEMORIES

So far, reminiscence therapy has brightened the mood in Khoo’s household and staved off some of her mood swings.

To take it a step further, Gadg(AID) asked Eugene Soh, the founder of Dude Studios, to “transport” Khoo to the one place she loves, Chinatown.

Soh runs a social enterprise making VR recreations of places that the disabled or infirmed wish they could see, but can never reach.

“We make VR scapes for people with dementia. This is the first time we shot one specifically for her (Khoo), but this same scene can be used for anyone else who has been to that same place,” said Soh.

When he used VR to let Khoo experience walking along the streets of Chinatown, she could describe the various buildings there. “When we use reminiscence therapy for VR, it is immersing them in that space,” added Soh.

“The effect would be times 10, because it’s immersed. It’s all around them instead of (them) looking at a picture, a video or looking at nostalgic objects that from the past.”

Khoo even recalled having raw fish porridge there and shopping with her friends in Chinatown.

Chan thought this therapy was helpful as it triggered some memories of her mother that she had not shared with them before.

6. SETTING THE MOOD WITH MUSIC

Research has shown that in dementia patients, the parts of the brain that stay intact are associated with music.

Michelle Lee is the founder of I’m Soul Inc, a social enterprise that uses technology to enable people to make music for the benefit of their mind, body and soul.

One of the devices she uses is Soundbeam, which uses ultrasonic sensors to translate body movement into music. For people with dementia, even if they forget many things, “the last thing that they forget is music”, she said.

“It’s in your primal brain, so you remember songs from long, long ago,” she said. “To be able to get back that lucidity, you find songs that resonate with them and then bring back that memory.”

At first, Khoo look unengaged and sceptical when she saw the device. But once she heard her favourite song “Ye Lai Xiang”, she started to warm up to it, singing and humming happily.

Law thinks this type of music therapy can bring communities and families together, especially with the elderly and those with special needs.

“This week has been a downer for her. And she’s complaining about quite a few things … but today (it’s the) opposite. She’s so happy,” he said.

Added Lee: “Once you have the social engagement, those things about loneliness, isolation, depression kind of go away … So there’s hope.”

Watch this episode of Gadg(AID) here.

SINGAPORE: Among the casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic are millions of individuals who stand at risk of losing their livelihoods and industries on the precipice of the biggest disruption ever.

The airline industry is among the most severely affected and is close to being snuffed out after travel bans and restrictions imposed by several governments around the world.

In a book I co-authored more than a decade ago on Singapore Airlines, I and my co-authors argued that “managing the uncontrollables” was a key challenge for airlines.

In other words, airlines have to deal with circumstances such wars or epidemics like SARS and COVID-19, and hence must have large slack resources such as cash to protect themselves from adverse events.

Even then, none of us surely could have imagined the scenario facing modern aviation.

AN EXEMPLARY PERFORMER

During its first 40 years, SIA was an exemplary performer. From 1972 to 2011, it had one loss-making year, whereas the average airline lost money every third year, and many airlines even more frequently.

READ: Commentary: COVID-19, the biggest crisis ever for Singapore’s aviation industry and Singapore Airlines

READ: Commentary: The brewing concern over jobs and salaries as COVID-19 persists

Though SIA’s financial performance has been patchier since 2011, it has continued to be profitable – until this year.

COVID-19 and its fallout are posing a challenge like no other. SIA has reduced capacity by 96 per cent and grounded almost all of its fleet.

As Ven Sreenivasan pointed out in his recent analysis in the Straits Times, much of SIA’s costs are fixed, taking a heavy toll on its cash position, even when no flights are being operated.

SIA has already announced it will bolster its capital, at rather unfavourable terms to current shareholders. The Singapore Government, like others around the world, is also offering assistance in terms of reduced or deferred fees and wage offsets, among others.

Even a venerable company like SIA, which has historically taken pride in being profitable and self-sustaining, was not spared the blushes by the current crisis.       

Assuming that a situation with implications similar in severity to the COVID-19 pandemic might occur in the future, SIA can protect against a repeat scenario by following three key strategies.

MAINTAIN A STRONG BALANCE SHEET

In a recent commentary, Bloomberg opinion columnist David Fickling argued even an airline with an extremely strong balance sheet would not be able to survive the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis without help from its financial backers including governments or big name shareholders.

READ: Commentary: The world’s airlines are headed for a crash landing. Government parachutes need to be activated now

READ: Commentary: The problem with reusing the 2009 global financial crisis playbook to deal with COVID-19

While it is difficult for any airline to keep billions of dollars in cash for a contingency, ensuring enough cash reserves and a strong balance sheet is surely a more robust and prudent strategy for an airline that could face many future crises and other rainy days, instead of banking on the goodwill of its backers.

In the good old days, SIA used to have very little debt, but that is no longer true – it has four outstanding bonds totalling S$1.3 billion, one of which matures next year. Yet premium airlines like SIA choose to splurge on somewhat unnecessarily aggressive plans on fleet renewal.

DIVERSIFY THE GEOGRAPHICAL BASE OF REVENUE SOURCES

Though COVID-19 has spread around the world, its intensity varies across geographic locations and many countries still allow some air travel activities.

Many other crises in the past tended to be geographically focused. Whenever Singapore is affected, the impact on SIA tend to be large because of its single-hub strategy. While SIA is trying to build Vistara in India, it remains a work in progress.

The uncertainty surrounding that joint venture, which has seen heavy-handed regulation and shifting policies, including delayed approvals from India for international flights, will not go away anytime soon.

In the medium- and long-term, SIA may be well served by looking for opportunities to have bases outside Singapore.

LISTEN: COVID-19 and safe distancing – why this can save lives

READ: Commentary: COVID-19 outbreak has become an existential crisis for the cruise industry

While past attempts to build these bases, through the purchase of Virgin Atlantic and a stake in Air New Zealand, have met with limited success, going forward, there may be more of such opportunities, which could also prove more attractive if the airline industry undergoes consolidation after battling the coronavirus downturn.

LOWER DEPENDENCE ON PREMIUM TRAVELLERS

Most premium airlines derive a good proportion of their revenues and a larger proportion of their profits from premium passengers. In fact, strategies such as fleet renewal and new customer conveniences are primarily directed at earning the loyalty of these passengers.

The COVID-19 pandemic might bring about a big change in the travel habits of premium passengers, most of whom travel for work. Having been forced to use video-conferencing, many business travellers will find their purposes are adequately served by technology. 

My bet is this will lead to a lasting decline in the number of premium passengers, or at least a slowdown in the growth and the revenue and profits such travellers account for airlines.

Airlines would have to get used to this new normal of a smaller proportion of premium passengers and a greater proportion of the price-sensitive leisure passenger. They would have to be more cost-efficient to survive and flourish in this new environment.

SLOWER RENEWAL OF THE FLEET

Though the average age of SIA’s fleet has drifted up from approximately 5.5 years more than a decade ago to the 7.5 years today, SIA competes with other leading airlines to operate among the youngest fleets of all airlines.

But going forward, SIA should consider slowing down on its fleet renewal.

While new planes save fuel, need lower maintenance and help build differentiation, they also add large fixed costs to balance sheets, especially if they are the latest models which tend to be expensive.

Debt financing also generates additional interest expenses. In a downturn, the fixed costs can be like a millstone around an airline’s neck.

READ: Commentary: Think flying is dead? Four reasons why business travel will bounce back from the COVID-19 slump

READ: Commentary: Why Singapore is preparing to tap the brakes to slow COVID-19 spread

Though the incremental benefits (net of costs) of rapid fleet renewal are becoming less salient, SIA is pushing ahead — in fact it intends to spend a significant proportion of the raised funds backed by Temasek and other shareholders on fleet renewal.

Even beyond the temporary challenges to solvency, the COVID-19 crisis will fundamentally alter the economics of the airline industry.

SIA has to be proactive and not just do more of what it has done in the past. It needs a rethink of its strategies and should try some innovative approaches to continue being successful for the next 50 years.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

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Nitin Pangarkar is Associate Professor in the Department of Strategy and Policy at the National University of Singapore Business School and author of Flying High in a Competitive Industry: Singapore Airlines.

SINGAPORE: The COVID-19 pandemic has put many cities around the world into lockdown, forcing millions of people to stay home until who knows when.

Media use has soared. Video streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney, have had to cut bandwidth to manage the upswing in demand as users, who now find themselves advised to avoid social gatherings, turn to online platforms to kill time.

News sites are also recording spikes in web visits while television viewing has seen huge growth in areas badly hit by the virus.

While part of this surge in media use stems from individuals fighting boredom while practicing social distancing and self-isolation, much of this also occur because individuals seek information to deal with the uncertainty arising from this pandemic.

Studies have documented how information-seeking helps reduce uncertainty during crises. Searching for advice, staying on top of updates and getting a better understanding of what’s happening around the world with the pandemic, also help equip people with important news that can guide how they respond to the crisis.

But such increased media use also exposes individuals to misinformation and information that might increase their anxiety.

MISINFORMATION AND ANXIETY

Government agencies, news outlets and social media platforms, already facing enormous challenges in arresting the spread of the virus, must devote huge resources to stop the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation.

These can range from something seemingly benign, such as how eating garlic can protect one from being infected, to something very dangerous. In Iran, viral messages claiming drinking industrial alcohol can protect one from the virus took the lives of more than 300 people.

READ: Commentary: Can chloroquine really treat COVID-19?

READ: Commentary: Can vitamin C really help with your cold or even COVID-19?

Seeking information can also expose individuals to details that might trigger anxiety and other negative emotions, at a time when the pandemic already tests the limits of people’s psychological well-being.

Seeing depressing images and learning about grim figures going up every day might increase anxiety in some people.

Indeed, studies have also documented how some individuals avoid news to manage uncertainty. Doing so protects them from being exposed to news that might trigger negative emotions.

Avoiding news about this pandemic, however, seems impossible. We are constantly bombarded with information about the pandemic whether we want it or not, through social media posts or family group chats on WhatsApp.

In a series of focus group discussions a few researchers and I conducted involving more than 80 university students in February, one student said: “I think regardless of whether you seek the news out, you will hear people talking about it around you.”

A GOOD MIDDLE GROUND

There are ways to keep track of the news without being sucked into the rabbit hole of nerve-racking COVID-19 headlines. Many of the students we interviewed waited for updates to be sent to them from news agencies as well as from the Government’s alert service on WhatsApp, rather than directly seeking out such news themselves.

If they have news apps installed on their phones, they open the app only when they get notifications. This helps them regulate their exposure to news about the outbreak.

Others engage in what scholars have termed as information-scanning, or when individuals obtain news about a specific threat despite not purposely seeking for it. For example, some people get to learn about the latest COVID-19 updates while browsing their Facebook feed to keep track of their friends.

READ: Commentary: Tech is not all bad. Our COVID-19 experience shows this

READ: Commentary: Disruptive tech is coming for COVID-19 threat, but needs more funding

Information-scanning might be a good middle ground for individuals who might otherwise feel more apprehensive if they are more regularly exposed to COVID-19 news, but who also need to be informed about latest developments, such as new Government measures.

DRAWING COMPARISONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Users share not only news updates but also how they kill time and respond to the crisis, including videos of their workouts, photos of dishes they have rustled up, and sharing tips on working from home.

These posts, sometimes light-hearted and amusing, are relatable, or serve as inspiration for those also stuck at home.

But these may be deemed insensitive by others, and have triggered counter-narratives on social media.

Photos and videos of people cooking, or stocking groceries have been contrasted with the plight of families unable to go to work and therefore unable to afford groceries and other essential supplies.

Not all individuals can afford to pay for Netflix. Frontline health workers don’t have the luxury to chill, netizens have pointed out.

Not everyone can be productive staying at home; parents have to work while tending to their children.

It is easy to say we should not compare ourselves to others, especially on social media, but holding back such comparisons is a challenging task.

READ: Commentary: What to do with all these health rumours and forwarded messages in the time of COVID-19?

READ: Commentary: We know more about the novel coronavirus but uncertainty remains about how virus spreads

How we understand our individual identity is based on social comparison, studies show. Individuals need benchmarks to assess themselves, and social media posts have become accessible yardsticks for social comparison, but this can also strain our psychological well-being.

MINDFUL MEDIA USAGE

So how can we stay connected and sane amidst a COVID-19 information overload?

First, we need to accept that individuals take many different approaches to cope with uncertainty. While some want more details, others try to shun negative details. We cannot simply impose on others what works for us.

We have to learn to accept that others may respond to negative news in a different way, even though it seems logical to think that staying informed about the latest news is the best way to respond to this crisis.

Much also depends on the kinds of news we share. For example, some individuals respond better to articles that increase their self-efficacy and inform what steps they can take to protect themselves, so they prefer reading about these instead of monitoring death counts.

Second, we must be active agents who ensure only accurate information goes around. Misinformation can trigger unnecessary panic, propagate dangerous practices, or give some people a false sense of security that might lead to complacency.

This is not easy, since even scientists still do not know everything about the virus. But we should rely exclusively on reliable and credible sources stepping up to provide timely and accurate facts.

So scrutinising the source of our news must be a habit. We should not trust a forwarded message on WhatsApp whose source cannot be traced.

That said, there are also traditionally credible sources – such as government officials and community leaders in other countries – who people look to for reassurance, but sadly also help propagate misinformation.

For instance, a spokesperson for the Philippine government wrongly claimed that eating bananas can protect people from the virus. A church in Gyeonggi Province in South Korea sprayed salt water into the mouths of churchgoers, believing it would kill the virus but instead infected dozens of its followers.

We should also not ignore misinformation when we see it, else we become complicit in its spread.

Third, we need to be mindful of our social media use. We should be mindful of what we post, and how we react to those we see.

READ: Commentary: ‘BBC Dad’ has learnt a thing or two about working from home

LISTEN: COVID-19 and safe distancing – why this can save lives

We should recognise that others cope by sharing about their lives on social media, while others cope by keeping quiet.

We need to be mindful that social media posts are selective – they cannot show a complete picture of someone’s life. This mindfulness should come handy when we’re tempted to compare our daily life with those of others, especially during this pandemic.

Some people will become more productive as they are forced to work from home; others will not be able to get work done due to abrupt shifts in their routines and will have to prioritise their personal circumstances. One is not necessarily a better response than the other.

This virus shows us we cannot just think about ourselves: The precautions we take are for the sake of others as well.

This should also be true about how we stay informed as a community facing uncertainty.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

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Edson C Tandoc Jr. is an Associate Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he teaches and does research on news production and consumption.

SINGAPORE: For years, business has been brisk at Hjh Maimunah, a popular kampung-style restaurant located in one of the city’s oldest Malay settlements, Geylang Serai. The restaurant is especially lively during Ramadan – with a record 2 million people visiting the annual Hari Raya Bazaar in the area last year.

This year, for the first time, the annual bazaar and many other Ramadan events planned islandwide have been cancelled due to the threat of COVID-19. With that, and the soon-to-be enforced “circuit breaker” measures announced on Friday (Apr 3), halal restaurants are feeling the heat. 

Ms Mastura Didih, one of Hjh Maimunah’s third-generation owners, said sales across her outlets dropped 20 per cent in February. It dropped further to 30 per cent this past week.

She said the sales impact was expected, given that most of the restaurant’s customers are tourists and people who work in the neighbourhood, but the safe distancing measures – like many other measures introduced since the outbreak began in January – were sudden.

“Everything happened so quickly that we had to call an emergency meeting on the staff’s day off. We had to tell them we needed to change the way we do business,” she said.

Before the announcement on Friday, Ms Mastura told CNA the company was already expecting walk-ins to dwindle and the decision was made to expand their delivery service. Hjh Maimunah is currently available on Deliveroo for some parts of Singapore and offers catering services for orders S$150 and above. 

But starting next week, customers can order on Hjh Maimunah’s own online platform powered by Oddle, with minimum orders set at S$35 and delivery charges starting from S$7. The company is also hoping to take in tingkat orders (one week of lunches or dinners) on this platform. 

“We had planned to launch this in Ramadan because we were getting requests for daily deliveries but because of the COVID-19 situation, we decided to launch earlier,” said Ms Mastura. 

READ: Most workplaces to close for one month from Apr 7 to curb spread of COVID-19

The expanded delivery comes at a ripe time, with “circuit breaker” measures to prevent further spread of COVID-19 set to take effect Apr 7. On Friday, the Government announced the closure of all workplaces except for those providing essential services such as food and medicine.

Restaurants can only remain open for takeaway and delivery, not dine-in, until May 4.

Those establishments allowed to remain open have to continue to adhere to safe distancing measures, such as a 1m-space between people. 

Hjh Maimunah is a popular option for catered festive food, which it typically delivers or prepares for self-collection on the eve of Hari Raya. Dishes like sambal goreng pengantin, sambal udang and rendang are prepared fresh for those who do not want to go through the laborious cooking process that the Hari Raya feast involves. 

Because of the safe distancing measures, Hjh Maimunah will have to take in fewer orders this year. 

“For delivery on Hari Raya eve, we will probably do only 50 customers – first come, first served. For self-collection, we prepared 500 orders last year, but this year we will only be taking 200,” she said. 

To make up for it, the company is jumping on a new business opportunity – frozen food. 

“We opened a second factory recently that we’ve been using to process frozen food for our own kitchens. We’ll start selling frozen food out of that factory in May during fasting month, for those who can’t do their shopping in Geylang,” said Ms Mastura. 

Already in the delivery game is Flame Cafe, which began offering its zhi char and Western menus, as well as its signature pagoda steamboat platters online earlier this week for a flat delivery fee of S$4. However, customers have to make their order by phone two days in advance. 

“We didn’t have much time to plan, the limited gathering announcement was quite abrupt. We came up with a plan in something like 24 hours,” said sales and marketing manager Ida Isnin. 

The cafe had seen “quite a big drop” in walk-in customers, said Ms Ida, adding that the lunch crowd alone was reduced by up to 40 per cent. 

“We usually see a few families dine at our restaurant for dinner, but recently we were seeing just one or two tables occupied,” she said.  

TOURIST HOTSPOT ARAB QUARTER A “GHOST TOWN”

Over in the Arab quarter, a tourist hotspot also popular during Ramadan, at least three restaurants jumped on the delivery bandwagon this week. 

After sales spiked from the launch of its delivery service in March, Fatpapas’ marketing and communications executive Annabelle Francis said the team decided to launch the same service for their sister outlet Wakuwaku Yakiniku. Previously, both restaurants drew such consistent crowds that they had to implement a queuing system. 

“We suffered a dip in numbers because of COVID-19, but our deliveries have definitely gone up. It did so well that Wakuwaku Yakiniku also became available for delivery on Apr 1. For Ramadan, we’re staying optimistic and plan to offer an exciting festive delivery menu,” said Ms Francis. 

In nearby Bussorah Street, popular Italian eatery Positano Risto also launched a delivery service on its website with a wide range of menu items including risotto and lobster thermidor, with no delivery charge. Those who self-collect will get 15 per cent off their order. 

“We never planned to do delivery at such a scale. We only started thinking about it on Mar 22 and decided to launch it as soon as possible. There was a sharp decline in revenue that week,” said general manager Mohammed Taha. “Overall we have seen a 70 per cent drop in our in-house revenue.”

Mr Mohammed Taha said the biggest change was having to shift the mindset of their staff in terms of the restaurant’s core business. 

“We had to transform from a dine-in service to a place where the revenue stream will mainly come from delivery. Front of house staff will have to go from entertaining customers to packing food. That’s a major change in their roles,” he said. 

“We have hired more delivery personnel and will hire more if the need arises,” he added. 

Another badly hit eatery in the area is I Am Cafe, which saw a 90 per cent drop in customers compared to before the coronavirus outbreak. 

There is usually a queue on the five-footway for a table at the cafe located at the intersection of North Bridge Road and Haji Lane, but the tourist hotspot has turned into a “ghost town”, said owner Jamuri Busori, who said he has no idea what to expect in Ramadan. 

“Our place is usually quite packed during iftar, but it remains a big question mark if anyone will come out to eat this Ramadan. People are afraid to go out. Even though we have taken extra measures, such as opening up our events area to offer more space between seats, people are not coming in. I’m clueless as to how things are going to be this Ramadan,” said Mr Jamuri. 

I Am Cafe has digitalised much of its operations since 2018, with customers encouraged to make even dine-in orders via their mobile devices. But amid the outbreak, delivery is now available islandwide, with S$10 specials and 20 per cent off the total bill. 

DELIVERY PLATFORMS “OVERWHELMED”

Koh Nang Kam, a Thai restaurant in the Kampong Glam district, said that with revenue reduced to a third on a weekday and by 80 per cent on previously busy weekends, it had hoped to jump into islandwide delivery as well, but this was delayed because delivery platforms appeared overwhelmed by a surge in such requests. 

“We are in talks with Oddle to integrate a nationwide delivery into our official website. We may be able to launch this in two weeks because their technical team is overwhelmed with the surge in applications for such services,” said manager Abdul Hadi Jamalludin, adding that the restaurant has submitted an application with GrabFood and is still awaiting response. 

Not everyone is hopeful that delivery is the solution. 

For Rasa Istimewa, delivery figures have not gone up, even though all its outlets have been available on third-party apps like Deliveroo and Foodpanda since before the outbreak. 

“I won’t say that deliveries have gone up. People are staying at home so they probably have more time to do their own cooking, so delivery has not really gone up,” owner Larry Tan told CNA. 

Rasa Istimewa has three outlets including one in SAFRA Jurong, which is linked to one of the biggest COVID-19 clusters in Singapore. 

“The SAFRA Jurong outlet is more seriously affected compared to the ones in Woodlands and Pasir Ris. We saw an almost 70 per cent drop in diners,” said Mr Tan. 

Still, the company is persisting, pushing discounts and free delivery on some platforms.

“It’s very demoralising,” said Mr Tan. “We hope the Government can help more than what they’re offering now. Even if the curve is flattened and the situation stabilises, it will take months for customer confidence to be restored. We’re in this for the long haul.” 

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SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is making between 1,000 to 2,000 calls a day to help contact trace and check compliance with stay-home notices as the Government ramps up measures to tackle COVID-19.

The daily operation, which started on Jan 28 with calls to travellers from Hubei province, involves more than 1,300 servicemen and non-uniformed personnel.

SAF contact tracers work with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to fill gaps in the activity maps of confirmed or suspected cases.

They call close contacts of these cases, ask questions about the nature of their interactions and whether they visited certain locations, then decide whether to issue quarantine orders.

For stay-home notice compliance checks, SAF personnel call those who have been unresponsive to text messages sent by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), to determine if they are at home and reasons for not responding.

SAF will collate these responses and send them to ICA, while those who remain uncontactable will be referred to the authority for follow-up action.

To support contact tracing efforts, Defence Science and Technology Agency engineers have also developed tools to automate the extraction and fusion of data for analysis.

“Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)/SAF is also working closely with DSTA to tap on analytics to uncover possible links between cases and discover potential new clusters,” the ministry said on Friday (Apr 3).

This comes as the Government announced sweeping new measures on Friday to curb the outbreak amid a rising number of local and unlinked cases. These include urging people to stay at home and closing schools and most workplaces.

“We are at a critical juncture in this fight against COVID-19,” Commander 6th Singapore Division Brigadier-General (BG) Lee Yi-Jin, who oversees the SAF’s contact tracing operations, said on Friday.

“When MOH asked us for our support, we were very clear that this is something that we have to do, step up and step forward.”

CONTACT TRACING

SAF contact tracers work nine-hour shifts and get assigned a number of cases each day based on Singapore’s case tally for the day. Their workload also depends on how many people a confirmed case could have infected.

A big part of their job is to assess whether a close contact of a confirmed case needs to be quarantined. Personnel are trained to ask questions about the physical distance, duration and nature of the interaction.

Those who are issued a quarantine order over the phone must go home immediately. A physical copy of the order will be issued at a later date.

READ: Wuhan coronavirus: 1,500 SAF personnel packing 5.2m masks in 24-hour operation

“Some are quite shocked, but the ones I encountered are quite happy to leave work immediately,” said Lance Corporal Muhammad Audi Ahmad, 22, a full-time national serviceman (NSF) who is part of the contact tracing team.

“Some people try to rationalise their opinion, saying I shouldn’t get quarantined and stuff like that. We try our best to explain why the decision was made as per MOH guidelines, and slowly they will comply accordingly.”

SAF contact tracers also study the activity maps of confirmed cases issued by hospitals, figure out where the patient had been in the two days before hospitalisation, and call the patient or his close contacts if more information is needed.

For instance, a patient declaring he took one-and-a-half hours to get to a clinic from his home via taxi would raise questions.

“We would ask him to give us the exact timings and what he was doing right before and after, to ensure we are able to trace correctly all the places has been to and who he has met,” said Ms Tiffany Chua, a MINDEF non-uniformed officer who is helping out with contact tracing.

While issuing quarantine orders is a big responsibility, the 25-year-old said she has gained confidence from observing MOH contact tracers during training.

“Four of us (from my department) volunteered for it because we thought it was very meaningful work, and we wanted to play a part in helping the nation’s efforts,” she added.

CHECKING STAY-HOME COMPLIANCE

Also playing their part are SAF servicemen who ensure people comply with stay-home notices. The Government had announced in March that anyone entering the country will be issued a 14-day stay-home notice to reduce the risk of local transmission.

Personnel on this job, who work in teams of six, used to do five-hour shifts and make 50 to 100 calls a day. But the workload has gone up to nine-hour shifts making more than 200 calls a day, says NSF Third Sergeant (3SG) Reuben George Pharez, 22.

3SG Pharez said the SAF personnel will call individuals who have been unresponsive to ICA’s text messages. If they pick up, they will need use an application to prove they are home, and give reasons why they had not responded before.

Common reasons for missing the text messages, 3SG Pharez said, include not checking their phones because they were sleeping or cooking.

SAF personnel will call up to five times before declaring someone uncontactable, with 3SG Pharez saying two out of 10 people a day fall in this group.

Some individuals are also uncooperative when called, 3SG Pharez said, insisting that they are at home because the number dialled is a landline, although landlines can be redirected to mobile phones too.

“We try to be patient with them, we flag it out that they are uncooperative, and ICA manages them,” he said. “We try not to interact with them as much.”

Another difficulty, these personnel said, is when people doubt their authority, especially as they don’t identify as being from SAF, but acting on behalf of the MOH or ICA. In this case, the personnel said they will give respective hotlines for verification.

Still, they said the job is rewarding as most people are understanding and thankful for their work.

“They appreciate the fact that you’re calling them to check on them,” 3SG Pharez said. “They mention that is heartwarming to know that the public is also willingly cooperating to fight the virus.”

While BG Lee said the fight against COVID-19 is “far from over”, he believes his charges have been adapting to different tasks and are fully focused on the mission.

“That ultimately gives me the biggest confidence and conviction that we’re going to get through this together,” he added.

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SINGAPORE: Singapore has sent more medical supplies to help Indonesia tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Friday (Apr 3).

The latest shipment, which came at the request of Indonesia, follows discussions on Mar 11 between leaders of the two countries, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Joko Widodo, on ways to strengthen collaboration in battling the coronavirus.

Friday’s shipment brings Singapore’s total contribution to 30,000 diagnostic tests and five Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines for the detection of COVID-19, 1,050 sets of personal protective equipment, 100 viral transport media and four thermal scanners, said MFA.  

The various items will be used in Jakarta, the Riau Islands, and North Sumatra.

Indonesia confirmed 196 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, marking the biggest daily rise since the first cases were announced a month ago. A total of 1,986 cases have been reported in the country to date, with 181 deaths. 

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