Covid19 - New solutions needed to lower the fear of foreign workers

Migrant workers in Singapore are living in fear following a surge of coronavirus infections in their dormitories where they say cramped and filthy conditions make social distancing impossible....

One worker from Bangladesh, who lives in a dorm where there are several known infections but has not yet been locked down, told AFP social distancing to halt the spread of the virus was not possible.
“One small room with 12 people living together… how can we make social distance?” the labourer said in English, on the condition of anonymity.

He said hygiene standards were poor and workers were forced to use a communal cooking area and bathroom....

‘Recipe for disaster’ -There are about 280,000 migrant construction workers in Singapore who mostly live in self-contained dorms, with shops and other facilities on-site. They are often located in less desirable parts of the city, meaning they mix little with Singaporeans....

Writing on Facebook, veteran Singapore diplomat Tommy Koh said it should be a “wake-up call to treat our indispensable foreign workers like a first world country should, and not in the disgraceful way in which they are treated now”....


The above are extracts from an article about the fears of foreign workers written by Sam Reeves / Catherine Lai and posted in theindependent.sg

From the above comments it is clear that many things have to be done to improve the conditions of the foreign workers working in Singapore. The location and size of the rooms in the dormitories need to change. Locate them nearer to the city or more desirable parts of Singapore where Singaporeans lived so that they don't feel being isolated, distanced, not wanted, rejected. They need love and acceptance and want to live among the Singaporeans, like Singaporeans. The 12 persons to a room must go. They should live like Singaporeans, 2 to a room max. They are in first world Singapore and should be treated like first world people, living like first world people in healthy and decent living quarters. How can they be made to live like the Sin kehs in the early 1900s?

The vacated flats due for demolition under SERS would come in very handy to give a new life to the migrant workers. 280,000, using a 3rm flat for computation, with 4 in a flat, only 70,000 flats would be needed. This should not pose a problem to HDB. They can always build more if not enough. It would be a boost to the construction industry. Then we would have happy first world workers from third world countries living with first world Singaporeans... and a happy ending as they live happily together forever. And the risk of virus infection would also be lower.

Seriously, is this the solution? What if the foreign workers go up to 500,000 or a million or more with the growing population to sell more flats and to consume more of everything, including essential services policies to push for GDP growth, there may be a need to build a few new towns for foreign workers for them to live like Singaporeans and enjoy the Singaporean standard of living.

What do you think?

Covid19 - Aren't Singapore lucky?

Photo credit AFP. Picture is not India but a dormitory in Singapore

Singapore is so lucky not because the USA now has more than 330,000 confirmed cases of infection and we have less than 2,000. Singapore is lucky not because the USA and many countries have 10,000 or more Covid19 death when we only have 6. And no, Singapore is not lucky because we have the best millionaire politicians in charge of this pandemic.

Singapore is very lucky that this pandemic hits when it only has 5.8 million people in the island and has yet to build up to 6.9m. We are damn lucky that today we still did not have 10m or 20m population that some so called intellectuals are saying we could have them. Aren't Singapore so lucky that our problem is to manage the welfare of only 5.8m people in the midst of this horrendous pandemic? How would Singapore have fared today if there were 10m or 20m people in the island?

How much would be the infected cases, the number of death, the people going jobless, the amount of money needed to withdraw from the reserves to help the 5.8m people instead of 10m or 20m people? How much food and medical supplies and masks stockpile, hospital beds, medical staff, contact tracing staff, quarantine venues/facilities etc etc will be needed? Aren't Singapore lucky that someone is kind enough to let Singapore face this problem at this point in time and not later? Aren't Singapore so lucky to be given a preview of what kinds of problems it would face in the future with a population double what it is today?

This pandemic is like someone telling Singapore not to be greedy, not to be crazy, not to be so confident that it can manage a 10m or 20m population with a problem like this. This pandemic is not going to be the last. Many would come along and could be worse and the consequences and pains could be multiplied by the number of people in the island. This is a lesson to tell Singapore, while it still can change course, change its assumptions about growing and growing its population as if there are only benefits and not consequences in an unlimited and unrestrained population growth policy, that it cannot go down that path of no returns.

Aren't Singapore being so lucky that this has to happen now to pull the brake on its wild and reckless population growth policy, to be given time to seriously think about this wild ambition just to grow its GDP numbers by growing its population?

What do you think? Is Singapore lucky? This pandemic coming at this time is the kindest thing to happen to Singapore.  Singapore, you have been warned well in advance, of your folly.  Operate within your limits and not to bite more than you can chew.  The mediocrity behind this non stop population growth policy is showing.

The latest one day increase of 287 is only the tip of the iceberg, only the eginning. Given the compact living space in the dormitories, given the foreign workers habit of close socialisation, enjoy close proximity, given that there are more than 300,000 of them here, once infected, a 30% infection rate is not too much to ask for. It could be 50%. At 30% we are looking at 100,000 cases. At 50% it is more than 150,000 cases. These are numbers that are not too far fetch from reality given the way this virus is spreading.

Prepare for the worse as this looks like inevitable. Do we have enough hospital beds, ventilators, medical staff, mortuary, masks etc etc? What would happen to the economy, joblessness, those who are living from paycheck to paycheck...?

Covid19 - Foreign workers clusters blossoming and spreading

There were 10 more cases at the S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, which now has a total of 98 confirmed cases.

At the Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, five additional cases were found to be linked to this cluster. There are a total of 34 confirmed cases here now.

Four additional cases were linked to the cluster at Toh Guan Dormitory, which has a total of 18 confirmed cases now. The dormitory is a newly declared isolation area.

The Sungei Tengah Lodge had 12 new cases linked to the cluster, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 18.

At the Tampines Dormitory cluster, eight additional cases were found, bringing the total there to 17.
In total, six more cases were linked to the Cochrane Lodge I and Cochrane Lodge II clusters, both in Admiralty Road West. Both places have a total of 12 confirmed cases.

There were three more links to the cluster at a construction site at Project Glory, which has a total of 21 confirmed cases now.

Seven additional cases were linked to the cluster at Mustafa Centre, which now has a total of 45 confirmed cases.

Three more cases were linked to the cluster at Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home, which now which has a total of 16 cases.... CNA

From the above there are more than 200 foreign workers affected by the virus and this number is growing. It may look insignificant given the millions of foreign workers here, but it is big enough amber to start a big fire. The only fortunate thing is that they have clearly defined place of lodging. If these workers are residing freely all over the housing estates, my God, the number of infection would be grossly amplified and impossible to trace.

Pray that this problem is contained. And the partial lockdown on non essential activities and businesses is very necessary to keep the foreign workers from moving around and spreading the virus.

The unfortunate thing is that there is no medicine to treat this virus at the moment and their recovery is mainly dependent on their own immune system and unproven medicine that were used to treat them.

The number of clusters even among the foreign workers is growing dramatically.

Yaacob Ibrahim was blasted for his comments about lesser foreign workers in public places. 

'MP Yaacob Ibrahim was upbraided on social media today for attributing the emptying of a green space of migrant workers to the coronavirus.  

Several people accused the former communications and information minister of xenophobia for citing the “inconvenience” caused by workers in a Sunday post about the empty field that is usually occupied by “foreign domestic workers.” ' Yahoo News.

With 2 over millions foreigners here, dunno who brought so many here, it is very difficult not to see foreigners in public places in huge numbers. The ratio now is about 1.5 Singaporeans to 1 foreigners or every 5 people, 2 are foreigners. Could be 1 to 1 if new citizens are included.

Looks like ordinary Singaporeans are not the only ones getting very uncomfortable and unbearable with the presence of so many foreigners. But what to do when they did not know how to use their votes to bring down the number of foreigners in their homeland.

PS Yesterday's 142 case of new infection is a new record coming after April Fool's Day with a partial lockdown that is proving to be a bit too late, too little to stop the explosion.  Too much praises from world leaders is nice and infectious too.

Covid19 -Trump screws Canada's boy PM

After happily conspiring with Trump to arrest Huawei's CFO, boy PM Trudeau and girly FM Freeland were so happy to be on the good books of Trump. They had done what Trump wanted them to do, ingratiated to Trump and think Trump will be nice to them and Canada. It does not take long for Trump to show them his true colour, Americans first come what may. Whatever silly things the Canadians did for him mean nothing.

The USA is desperate for medical supplies and N95 masks are facing huge shortage. Trump not only stole the consignments from 3M, China destined for France and Germany, he ordered 3M to stop exporting to Canada. Canada is also short of these masks and desperately trying to get their hands on them. What Trump did was a tight slap on the faces of Trudeau and Freeland. The two kids are angry but hapless. They could not do anything about it. Trudeau said he would not retaliate.

This is just retribution for sleeping with Devil. The Devil has turned around to screw them real hard and the sick Canadians are going to pay for their naivity and silliness to conspire with Trump. Can they go begging China for N95 masks?  What would China say to these two dumb kids?

The only way to redeem themselves now is to distance from Trump and send the Huawei CFO home to China. That may save them some time and get the Chinese to offer them some aid. Anything less will not work.

This is a very painful less, very embarrassing for the boy PM and grily FM. Would they learn anything from it? Or would he go crying to Trump and say, 'I thought we were friends after working hand in glove to fix China, arresting Huawei's CFO? Don't you remember how glad you were when we agreed to help you? How can you do these to us now? We are friends, we are friends.' No?

Americans first, you die your business.

Covid19 - 20,000 men under 14 days lockdown in dormitories

On April 1st I asked whether it was a fools day or a day of wisdom to decide tougher measures in view of the community spread that is getting more serious. 3 days later the govt announced that there will be a partial lockdown, called circuit breaker on 7 April. The semi lockdown is one week late. In the meantime we saw the biggest one day infection rate of 120 cases on 5 April and two workers domitories being declared as isolation centres.  All in 20,000 foreign workers would be lockdown in the two dormitories after two big clusters emerged from them, ie the S11 Dormitory in Seletar North (13,000 men) and the Westlite Toh Guan dormitory(7,000 men) in Toh Guan Road. S11 has 63 confirmed cases while Toh Guan has 28 cases at this moment of writing(6 April).

The locking down of 20,000 workers is only the first step. Now contact tracing of  the workers' companion should be on the way, many are foreign maids. This would be linked directly to their employers and their respective families. The possibility of the workers' companion being tested positive is high, and so will be their respective employers. How big these two clusters will be only time will tell.

And this is only the beginning of the problem, 20,000 people isolated. This brings to mind the isolation and containment of several thousand holiday makers in the cruise ships. The situation is quite similar and the risk as well. How many more of these workers in the isolation centres would eventually also be infected? If the experience of what happened in the cruise is to be repeated, the situation is dire.

If, I say if, the infection rate picks up and the workers in the centres are stricken by fear that they too would get infected, the big question is whether they would do a breakout. This likelihood is going to pose a big security problem to the gate keepers. How to guard and prevent a breakout of 10,000 to 20,000 foreigner workers fearing for their lives? These are not sophisticated people but poorly educated villagers and getting hysteria, being very frighten and running wild cannot be ruled out.

How many police or soldiers would be needed to guard these interned workers? If this thing explodes, it would be many times more serious than the Little India Incident and many times more difficult to control and to bring them back to an isolation centre. If there is a breakout and with some already infected, it would be a very serious problem. Controlling 20,000 people that are stricken with fear and panicking would need many times more manpower to do so unless the centres are secured before hand with effective barriers to reduce the workload of the gate keepers.

This is a hot potato and managing it is not easy when hell breaks loose. When they are so frighten and decide to run for their lives....

PS. 

The nation’s leading infectious disease specialist said Sunday night that as many as half the people infected with the virus may not have any symptoms, a much larger estimate than the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave last week.

“It’s somewhere between 25 and 50 percent,” said the specialist, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, during a briefing by President Trump and members of his coronavirus task force on Sunday. NYT