Since Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Feb 22 that all employers here should not request medical certificates from workers who test positive for Covid-19, some have found ways to fake a positive ART test.
The Manpower Ministry said there was no need for employees to get a medical certificate as the healthcare system continues to face stresses from rising infections amid the Omicron wave.
In a video posted on Facebook on Sunday (Feb 27) a netizen who goes by the name of Alvin Li posted a minute-long clip showing how a fake positive ART test could be achieved.
In the video, he unwrapped an Antigen Rapid Test (ART) and showed it to the camera. There was no result. He then held it under a running tap, dripping water into the test’s well, where specimens would usually be dripped into.
Within a few seconds, the Covid-19 test showed two lines, a Covid-19 positive result.
The man, Mr Li, captioned his video: “How many doing this to get 5days MC?”
In less than a day, the video garnered more than 4,200 shares and almost 1,000 comments. Unlike regular comments, many commenters had tagged friends of theirs in the video, drawing their attention to it and asking them to watch it.
Last week, in a Facebook post, Mdm Ho Ching gave an explanation of why she was so insistent that employers, HR managers, and workplace supervisors not ask their staff for MCs certifying that they have Covid-19 after they have had a positive antigen rapid test result.
Madam Ho said: “These are extraordinary times, and sending an ART+ staff to a GP clinic to get an MC is just causing one more point of infection transmission”.
For human resource records, she said in her post on Wednesday, they can ask employees to do their own ART tests based on an honour system, have a supervised ART test via a video call, or have the employee go to a quick test centre to do a supervised self-test.
“Do NOT ask the employees to go to GPs, polyclinics or the hospital A&Es for additional tests – this brings more infectious nodes into places with many other potentially highly vulnerable people seeking serious medical attention,” she said.
She said it was “unconscionable and irresponsible” to ask those who have tested positive to put themselves in contact with other patients, and requiring these employees to get MCs may put them in contact with others “who are sick, frail, and more vulnerable than the general population bcos their immune system is likely to be down when they are sick, old or frail and needing medical attention”. /TISG
Ho Ching calls out employers, HR managers, supervisors who insist on MCs after staff test positive