Singapore—The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) responded to social media posts from former DJ and social media influencer Jade Rasif about her domestic helper, who had to be quarantined after being released from her Stay-Home Notice (SHN).
Ms Rasif had written on her Instagram and Facebook accounts on Monday (May 17) that she and her family hired a new helper from Indonesia some time ago, and paid S$2,500 for her Stay-Home-Hotice (SHN), which was supposed to last for at least two weeks.
To their surprise, the helper was allowed to start working only three days after the SHN started. “No quarantine needed since she was recovered,” Ms Rasif wrote.
But when the helper was swabbed again two weeks later and tested positive for Covid-19, she had to go into quarantine again, which confused Ms Rasif, who added that she could not contact anyone who could answer her questions.
She added that she even asked for a postponement of a court date, as she was unsure if she could make it due to exposure to her helper.
And then she wrote that she received a phone call from the police telling her she was being investigated for potentially breaching a quarantine order, which she had never received.
Her family then shelled out S$200 each for voluntary Covid tests, which fortunately turned out negative.
But at this point, more infection clusters were being reported in Singapore.
“I literally barricaded myself in my house, and wore an N95 at home, because I DID NOT want to get my ass locked in a windowless hotel room for 3 weeks,” she wrote.
All in all, she still considers that her family was “lucky” because although her helper tested positive, a new cluster was not started by her early release, unlike in other cases.
Ms Rasif wrote that the story has “a happy ending!!! It’s been a month and we have all been vaccinated, covid free, blessed, and highly favoured.”
She also added that she specifically “didn’t mention any government agencies or bodies because I didn’t want this to be political.”
Shortly afterwards, MOM responded to Ms Rasif’s post.
Although the ministry wrote it was “sorry to hear about the experience of Ms Jade Rasif and her family,” it said that her account “however is inaccurate and we would like to set out the facts.”
The helper, who arrived in Singapore on April 11, had indeed tested negative on her PCR test when she arrived. “She was assessed to be safe and allowed to be discharged from Stay-Home Notice (SHN) on 13 April 2021,” MOM wrote.
But the ministry decided that she needed to be tested again on April 30, due to “the worsening Covid-19 situation and new understanding of the infectiousness of variants of concern in the region”.
Therefore, despite the low risk of the helper getting reinfected, MOM “wanted to be sure.”
While the helper tested positive, “there were indications that this was an old infection and the PCR test could be picking dead viral fragments from the old infection. Further medical clinical assessment was needed to confirm that it was not a reinfection case.”
Since she did not have an active Covid-19 infection, she was therefore not classified as a Covid-19 case. By May 9, when MOM determined that the helper posed no threat to Ms Rasif’s family, she was free to go back.
Ms Rasif thanked MOM for its response but stuck to her guns.
Ms Rasif wrote over social media after MOM responded to her earlier post: “Guys, can you please comment and ask what exactly was inaccurate? This was literally what I said. I think their dates were wrong as well. I have a movement order signed by the director of CDD and the dates do not match.”
She then went on to “provide corrections” on the timeline MOM gave in its response.
But later, she added, “To be honest, admitting a mistake was made is not an easy thing to do.”
“It was never my intention to point the finger, and I never ever mentioned ANY government agency in my original post,” she wrote.
On an Instagram story, she wrote, “2021: women keep receipts.”
/TISG
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