Singapore—A private cop who had been working during the recent Chingay street parade is one of the latest to be infected with the Novel coronavirus or Covid-19.
The parade was held on January 31 and February 1 and the 37-year-old man works for Certis Cisco, a security company.
He is the 44th recorded person positive for the virus, which originated in Wuhan, a city in central China, and has gone on to infect over 45,000 people all over the world, and killed over 1,115.
In an advisory dated Monday (Feb 10), the Ministry of Health (MOH) wrote “Case 44 is a 37 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH).”
The cop started experiencing the symptoms of the virus on January 31, the MOH advisory says, and went to a general practitioner for treatment on February 2.
On February 6, he was put into isolation at KTPH, where testing later confirmed that he was positive for Covid-19.
Straitstimes.com reports, however, that the People’s Association (PA), which organised the Chingay parade, said via WhatsApp message to individuals who had performed or participated in the parade that the man’s temperature was taken on both Jan 31 and Feb 1, and that he had no signs of sickness.
The WhatsApp message also assured recipients that the man had not been in close contact with both the performers and the audience when the parade was held.
Part of the message read, “We apologise for the alarm caused due to the news but based on the current facts, the officer was not in close contact with any of our performers/audience.”
The MOH said in its update that before he was admitted to KTPH, the man, a resident of Sembawang drive, had worked at Certis Cisco Centre in Paya Lebar (20 Jalan Afifi) and Chingay 2020.
Furthermore, he had actually served quarantine orders to two people who had come from Wuhan and later tested positive for Covid-19.
After he began to show symptoms of the virus, the man did not serve any other Quarantine Orders.
Details of the man’s deployment at Chingay, held this year at the F1 Pit Building, are as follows:
On January 31, he facilitated traffic at the junction of Bayfront Avenue and Raffles Avenue. According to PA, there had been “minimal interaction between the officer and performers or the crowd as the performers / crowd are constantly moving.”
On February 1, he worked as a roving officer at the Youth Olympic Park area to substitute for fellow officers when they went on their break. The PA said,”Performers did not access that area and there was limited crowd movement there. The officer was roving in that area and did not have prolonged interaction with any members of the public.”
Straitstimes.com also quotes a representative of Certis Cisco as saying that the company’s top priority is the safety of its workers. “We are focused on providing all necessary assistance to the affected employee and his family. We are currently assisting the authorities with their investigations,” she said. -/TISG
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