Fear can make us do a lot of stupid things.
Like microwaving money. Or wearing a dinosaur suit for your grocery shopping, because there hasn’t been any evidence to show that dinosaurs would be infected with the coronavirus.
And because fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, some of us come out with even false evidence, like how foreign domestic workers are now infected because they’re in close contact with workers from dormitories.
In fact, there was even a WhatsApp message that fueled the fire—it claimed that the situation could “spiral out of control” if the foreign domestic workers caught the virus from workers from dormitories and then spread it to their employers.
Well, now, let FEAR be beaten by numbers.
17 Domestic Workers in S’pore Had COVID-19 But None Infected by Workers from Dormitories
The numbers show that so far, there have been 17 domestic workers who are tested positive for COVID-19.
However, none of them is infected by workers from dormitories.
And just to add on before anyone goes apeshit, these workers from dormitories are completely innocent; they just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This could happen anywhere; imagine if there’s a cluster in military camps—it’d spread like wildfire, too.
Recruit Jelly: That’s why I’m serving my NS at home
Right.
So, moving on—of the 17 domestic workers, most of them are infected by their employers.
In other words, it’s the other way around lah; the employers spread it to them, and not them spreading it to the employers.
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Stay Home for Domestic Workers; Stay in Dormitories for Migrant Workers
Before the Circuit Breaker, domestic workers have been instructed to stay home—even during their rest days.
That could have broken the chain of transmission; if there’s any even in the first place.
And on 11 April 2020, MOM said they MUST stay home—which is what we’ve all been doing as well.
In addition, over in the dormitories, workers there are now on “lockdown”, too: those who work in essential services and are healthy have been housed in other accommodation, and their movement is also as restricted as ours.
In other words, they, just like any lovebirds in Singapore, have been separated.
And for their case, they were separated even earlier (i.e. before Circuit Breaker period), while for us, we’ve only started to videoconference our bae since 7 April 2020 and got to know how bad the video-streaming quality from WhatsApp can be.
So if you receive any weird WhatsApp message about migrant worker infecting domestic worker, remind the fellow who forwarded you the message that POFMA exists in Singapore.
