Why was a preschool employee asked to travel further than necessary for swab testing

Singapore – More questions regarding the poor planning involved in testing preschool staff for Covid-19 were raised as one member of the public’s mother was advised to go to Khatib MRT when she was located nearer to another pickup point at Tampines.

On Saturday (May 16), Facebook page All Singapore Stuff shared the concerns of an individual whose mother was asked to go to Khatib MRT for her Covid-19 swab test when she worked in a preschool in Bedok Reservoir, and the Tampines West MRT pickup point was nearer. “Why risk the staff to travel so far when most of them are living in the east?” asked the concerned citizen.

A photo of the mother’s Testing Registration Confirmation email was added which showed the whole swab test process.

On May 15, the first day of the testing initiative, a long queue of about 200 preschool staff was spotted at the Khatib MRT. According to a Facebook post by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), a “scheduling issue” occurred from one of their preschool operators which caused the delay. They added that some of the staff arrived hours before their scheduled slots. MSF encouraged everyone to come only at their assigned schedules to avoid a buildup of people at the stations.

Netizens continued to question the poor planning of the whole initiative, given the email confirmation and the concerns raised. A few noted that the “standards of the government have dropped” especially on handling the Covid-19 pandemic. A netizen wondered why proper planning could be implemented on foreign workers while the same couldn’t be done for locals.

Ai Ling confirmed that the same situation happened to her mom who has to travel from Jurong to Khatib MRT. On top of the need to travel far, the queue is also long “simply because they are scheduled all together,” noted Dennis Teo. “If simple logistic like this also (sic) cannot schedule properly, you think they can do anything else properly?” he asked.

A few repeated themselves in wondering if a representative or someone who could take a swab could be sent to the childcare centre or at least send the staff to the nearest pickup point instead of the current setup.

Meanwhile, Eastern Ng suggested establishing five stations to cover the main areas of the country to avoid the creation of potential clusters.

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Long queues of preschool staff for Covid-19 tests: Poor planning or scheduling issue?