Singapore—After seeing used face masks littered in different places, an irate netizen has appealed to Singaporeans to dispose of them properly.
After all, LiLynn Wan pointed out, it defies common sense to want to avoid sickness through wearing masks and then thoughtlessly discard them just anywhere regardless of the germs they may have.
Ms Wan wrote on February 9, “Dear Singapore — please STOP discarding your used face masks on the ground. If you are concerned enough about the spread of the coronavirus that you are wearing a mask, it makes no sense to litter like this.”
She added a warning to her post. “You are only increasing the chances of this thing getting out of control and increasing the risk to your own health. We can do better than this. We are better than this.”
Ms Wan posted five pictures of discarded masks she had seen within a 5-minute walk, she wrote at the end of her post. She also told Coconuts Singapore that the used masks she had seen had been all over the Novena neighborhood, such as in the vicinity of Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). Alarmingly, the hospital is right beside the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), the venue where a number of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) patients are being held in isolation.
She told Coconuts, “We live around Tan Tock Seng hospital area. I walk our dog around here and this is where I took the photos. There were quite a few on the Tan Tock Seng Link, but I noticed yesterday some of those were cleaned up this morning. However, there are still quite a few along Irrawaddy Rd, Moulmein, Sinara — around the hospital and Novena.
Ms Wan added that the number of masks have actually increased just this past week, and that she had seen “about a dozen” between her home in Akyab Rd and Novena.
The post has been widely shared, with people commenting that this is indeed appallingly unhygienic behavior.
Netizen Robert Lim commented. “Absolutely inconsiderate, it’s so unhygienic. What happened to the years of campaigns??”
Lindy Kim called people who throw their used masks this way as “Horrible ppl,” who “Then blame everyone else and the government for not doing enough to stop the spreading.”
Another individual, Shannel Tan, posted a similar photo of a mask discarded at an hdb corridor.
She wrote, “Our first world country with a third world mentality.”
The number of 2019-nCoV cases in Singapore has continued to grow. The country reported two new cases of the virus on Monday (Feb 10), bringing the countrywide total up to 45. The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that all large-scale events will be cancelled or postponed after the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) alert level was raised to the second highest level, code orange. The HSBC Women’s Golf World Championship scheduled to be held in Singapore from Feb 27 to Mar 1 and the 2020 Honda LPGA Thailand tournament scheduled for Feb 20 to 23 will also be cancelled for health reasons.