When it was announced that ICA building was one of the new clusters yesterday, people were like
Wasn’t ICA closed? Why would people want to renew their passport during the COVID-19 period? Could it be a construction site there?
Well, for a start, the ICA Building isn’t closed completely; during the circuit breaker period, people can still go to the building for urgent matters (ICA Building isn’t just for you to collect passport, Bruh), but they’d need to submit a request online to book an appointment first.
And also, most, if not all, the cases in ICA Building were infected prior to the Circuit Breaker period.
Remember, it takes 11 days for the Circuit Breaker to show some results, and we’re only at the…how many days have it been?
The ICA Building will be closed today (11 April 2020) for disinfection, and according to them, once they were notified that a cluster was formed in the building, they “immediately proceeded with thorough disinfection of the public and staff areas that the officers could have gone to at the ICA Building.”
They added, “These areas have been disinfected thoroughly in accordance with NEA’s guidelines for environmental cleaning and disinfection of areas for COVID-19 cases. These include areas such as the e-Lobby, public and staff entrances, public and staff lifts, escalators, work stations, meeting rooms, pantries, and public and staff toilets.”
People who have appointments today should go down on Monday instead.
Before you go apeshit, ICA has said that precautionary measures were already implemented since the outbreak, and all frontline officers wear reusable masks while officers performing clearance or screening duties on travellers with symptoms are required to wear surgical masks.
So don’t worry if you’ve been there. But of course, continue to monitor your health even if you’ve not been there.
So, who are the COVID-19 cases?
Officer at ICA’s e-Lobby (Case 1553)
It’s unknown what his job title is, but the 49-year-old Singaporean officer had last reported for work on 6 April 2020 and had a fever the next day. On that day, he was deployed to ICA e-Lobby for about 2 hours to assistant customers, but was wearing a surgical mask throughout. He was confirmed to be infected on 8 April 2020.
Officer in Staff Unit (Case 1650)
The 42-year-old Singaporean works in a staff-only area and was last in the building on 27 March 2020, as he had taken two 5-day MCs and was eventually confirmed to be COVID-19 positive on 8 April 2020.
Officer in Staff Unit (1698)
Simple to the previous case, the 66-year-old Singaporean works in a staff-only area and was last in the building on 26 March 2020. She, too, had her 5-day MC and was eventually tested positive on 8 April 2020.
Temperature Screener (Case 1733)
The 39-year-old Singaporean has last worked on 28 March 2020, and got her 5-day MC after she fell sick on 30 March 2020. She works as a temperature screener at the entrance of the ICA building, but had worn a surgical mask throughout her deployment,
Auxiliary Police Officer (1950)
You know the numerous auxiliary police officers deployed in and out of the building? Yes, he’s one of them. He had his symptoms on 8 April 2020, and was on MC for five days, and was then confirmed to be COVID-19 positive on 9 April 2020. Throughout his deployment, he had worn a surgical mask.
5-Day MCs Might Have Saved The Day
If you’d have realised, the 5-day MC has proven to work in this cluster, whereby the patients were “forced” to stay home and eventually, when their symptoms did not go off, they were tested positive for the coronavirus.
So if you’ve been wondering why rules are being implemented, just remember this: there’s a reason for every rule, and you might only understand them when shit hits the fan.
Or in this case, when patients are detected through the MCs.
