Singapore — After videos of the “dire conditions” at a community care facility went viral, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Manpower said in a joint reply that they have already fixed many of the problems that had been featured in the post.
“The well-being of our migrant workers is important to us,” MOM and MOH have been quoted as saying in a joint reply.
Ms Min Chan wrote in a Facebook post on Oct 2 that the poor conditions in the facility made her feel ashamed.
“Today, I felt the gravity of my privilege, and deep shame for the blind eye I’ve turned to the discrimination so ingrained in my own country,” she wrote.
She also included several videos of the facility.
Although not usually a vocal person online, Ms Chan noted that she wished to “raise awareness to pave the way for accountability and change.”
She shared the situation of a friend who has lived in Singapore for over eight years with a work permit.
Her friend got infected with Covid-19 from his Singaporean landlord, who was allowed to undergo home recovery.
Ms Chan’s friend was fully vaccinated, showed mild symptoms and was told to quarantine at the Ang Mo Kio ITE facility.
“None of us were prepared for the dire conditions,” she wrote.
Ms Chan listed the conditions such as no lighting provided during the day, rooms bare and filthy with no effort at sanitation between tenants, thin mattresses on the beds with no blankets, lack of room essentials like tables or chairs, toilet and shower amenities akin to wet market public toilets, and cold packaged food delivered during mealtimes.
However, the two ministries wrote that they had visited and examined the conditions at the facility some weeks ago and ensured that improvements had been made.
The MOH will keep working with the facility’s managing agent to “continually improve living conditions,” the MOH and MOM told TODAY.
The two ministries were also quoted in TODAY as saying that the rooms had been generally clean when the facility was inspected.
“Many of the findings highlighted by the writer had been resolved several weeks ago,” the joint reply said, adding, “The ground operations team is reviewing some of the issues and has taken immediate steps to address them.
These include infrastructure improvement to prevent rainwater splattering during heavy downpours, procurement of more fans, and installation of more container toilets.”
Disinfection is also carried out after each patient is discharged. /TISG
‘Dire conditions’ in Covid isolation facility makes S’porean ashamed; discrimination questioned