Videos show people are not practising social distancing at mall entrances

Singapore – Questions on social distancing to stop the spread of Covid-19 are being raised once again because of videos circulating online of people failing to queue 1 metre apart at mall entrances.

On Friday (March 27), Facebook page All Singapore Stuff had two videos of people queueing at mall entrances, one at NEX and the other at Seletar Mall. The lack of distance between each person as they rode the escalator to the entrance or waited in line to enter the mall made the online community wonder if social distancing was being implemented and followed properly.

“Ah, you see lah. Where got social distancing or three escalator steps apart? Liddat many people in this video need to kena fined or jailed?,” read the caption for the NEX video.

The Serangoon MRT Station is located one level below the mall entrance, which brought up the issue of safe distancing in public transport.

This led to a comment on the policymaking process in Singapore.

Meanwhile, back above ground, the queue at Seletar Mall was even longer. Those who saw the video wondered about the logic of limiting the number of shoppers going into the mall when there was already heightened danger of infection from the close proximity to one another as they waited to get into the mall.

This lead to the observation that there would, in fact, be less exposure from letting everybody in because everybody would, once inside, be constantly on the move.

One person mentions the practice in China of shoppers scanning QR codes on entering a mall, making them easier to track should a Covid-19 case pop up in the area.

Others urged the public to keep safe and turn back when there were long queues. They wondered whether it was really necessary to go to the mall, or whether it was the Singapore past-time of “I-see-people-queue-I-also-queue.”

With all events and mass gatherings deferred or cancelled, regardless of size, and Singaporeans advised to avoid holding and participating in social events and gatherings involving more than 10 persons at any one time, everybody is wondering when there will be more stringent safe distancing measures in other places where there are many people, such as on buses and trains. /TISG

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