Singapore—After two accommodations for a Malaysian S pass holder on a Stay Home Notice (SHN) proved to be “worse than the quarantine facility in Malaysia”, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) stepped in and made sure he ended up in a better room.
The worker, who goes by @dameinvxixi on Twitter, chronicled his woes on social media, and then thanked MOM heartily for helping him and his roommates.
While most people who arrive in Singapore only have to quarantine for 14 days, those who work in the construction sector have to serve a 21-day SHN.
Mr Felix Kwan arrived early in March and it seems that his accommodations for the first two weeks were all right.
On Mar 14, he tweeted that he was “so excited”, presumably because his SHN was supposedly ending. But he was told the next day that he would be transferred to another quarantine facility and spend another seven days in quarantine there.
He had been initially told by MOM that since he would be staying in an HDB unit and not in a dormitory and would be working in an office and not on site, he did not have to serve the extra week in quarantine.
And they told me that since I'll be living in a HDB and not dorms, I won't have to serve the extra 7 days. Like every one of them (people from MOM and SHN) told me the same thing, every day. I even called MOM and asked about this and the lady told me the same thing as well
— 洗頭洗到天亮的婦人 (@dameinvxixi) March 15, 2021
However, later, he was told that this was not correct and that he did indeed need to serve the additional seven days’ quarantine.
He tweeted on Mar 15, “I was so happy and excited to be out LMAO and they decided to deliver the news to me last minute ya How did 10+ people all gave me the wrong info ah?”
Well there's that. Fuck me sideways 🙃 I was so happy and excited to be out LMAO and they decided to deliver the news to me last minute ya ☺️ How did 10+ people all gave me the wrong info ah? 😭😭😭
— 洗頭洗到天亮的婦人 (@dameinvxixi) March 15, 2021
Unfortunately, his troubles were just beginning.
On the same day, he posted photos of the new quarantine facility—which was not only dirty, but had the barest essentials for living.
What the fuck man… 我真的要哭了 pic.twitter.com/eEFsVSDmO2
— 洗頭洗到天亮的婦人 (@dameinvxixi) March 15, 2021
To add insult to injury, he had to carry his 30 kg luggage up seven flights of stairs.
And he wondered what the purpose of the additional quarantine was, since he had to share a room and bathroom with others.
After he complained about the condition of the room, he was moved to another, which was no better and already had occupants.
"hello are you Felix? You complained that your unit and toilet is dirty right? Let's change room, your new unit is here"
*Proceeded to bring me, the other 2 guys from the previous unit to the new unit, which is already preoccupied by 2 other guys.*
New unit: pic.twitter.com/INIXnYzRwD
— 洗頭洗到天亮的婦人 (@dameinvxixi) March 15, 2021
At one point, he wrote, “I’d rather have covid and stay in a hospital.”
He also wrote, “Could have dodged this extra-7-day-hell if I had an EP but oh well.”
When his employer talked to MOM, they were told “there’s nothing that they can do except for asking the 7-day quarantine operation team to clean and change the room for me.
“And the officer from the operation team told me my latest room is the cleanest in the entire building.”
But he made it clear that he was not unwilling to stay in isolation for another week, tweeting, “I mean okay say I think it’s completely reasonable to quarantine for 21 days (last 7 days’ quarantine seems pretty pointless to me since have to share room and bathroom w/ others), can’t I stay in a nicer place?”
On Mar 18, his situation turned around, as can be seen from his all-caps tweet.
— 洗頭洗到天亮的婦人 (@dameinvxixi) March 18, 2021
Regarding the worker’s accommodations, the MOM said to Coconuts, “The room that Mr Kwan was initially assigned did not meet with our expectations, and we had told the managing agent so. We had contacted Mr Kwan and arranged for him to be put up in another room.”
/TISG
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