Singapore — A woman appealed for help over social media after her husband received a call from the Ministry of Health telling him of his exposure to Covid, which meant he needed to quarantine.
However, an hour later, MOH called again to apologise for the inconvenience, as there was no need to quarantine.
And then, in an update to her query posted on the Friends of Yew Tee Facebook page, she said that the ministry had called again, to reinstate the quarantine order (QO).
However, in the latest comment to her post, she wrote that the QO had been rescinded yet again.
“What is happening to our MOH?
What should we do now?” she asked in her post.
One cannot blame Ms Aljhane May Cheow for feeling both stressed and confused with the seemingly contradictory instructions from the ministry.
After all, it’s scary enough to hear of your loved ones’ possible exposure to Covid. Added to this is the necessity of making arrangements for isolation, which can be challenging as work and childcare arrangements need to be sorted out.
Ms Cheow wrote in her Aug 19 post that at 2 pm that day, her husband had received a call saying he had been in close contact with a person who tested positive for Covid.
The husband was given instructions to self-quarantine for the time being and was told that in two days he would be brought elsewhere to isolate.
And then, an hour later, he received a call from the same number and was told “NO NEED TO QUARANTINE and sorry for the inconvenience.”
However, in the meantime, Ms Cheow quite naturally had sprung into action, writing that she had rushed back home to pick their children up.
Four hours later, she gave a terse update. “They called again .. Gave another QO,” Ms Cheow wrote, adding a facepalm emoji.
In the comments to her post, she showed a message from MOH indicating that the Quarantine Order had been rescinded, before commenting again that the order had been reinstated.
However, in her very last message, Ms Cheow wrote that the order had been rescinded yet again.
The beleaguered family is not the first to get confused by a quarantine order, nor is it likely to be the last, as long as the pandemic is ongoing.
/TISG
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