Today officially marks the first day of the drastic COVID-19 circuit breaker measures implementation in Singapore. These measures are the most serious and impactful ones which Singapore has ever put in place so far, at least from the time when I was born. We are indeed living in extra-ordinary times and I want to write this blog to commemorate this historical day for our future generation to be aware of. Basically, most things in Singapore comes to a stand still except essential services such as medical (hospitals and clinics), food & beverage (dine-in not permitted. Takeaway only), telecommunications (mobile and internet services), etc.
These circuit breaker measures were publicly announced at 4 pm on last Friday, 03 April 2020 which was rather last minute. The authorities decided to implement such drastic measures after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore continued to raise despite extensive contact tracing, quarrentine and social distancing. The most worrying thing is not the rising number of confirmed cases but rather the rising number of unlinked cases in which the infected person does not know where and how he/she caught the virus. As a result, there is a need to minimise person to person contact in order to bring down the chance of getting infected. These circuit breaker measures were not totally unexpected as many other countries which have been hit hard by the deadly virus have already implemented such lockdown measures. After the circuit breaker measures announcement were made, many organisations out there were not fully prepared and some of them even had a hard time making last minute arrangements for staff to work efficiently at home before the Monday, 06 April 2020 deadline. In fact, everyone in my office were busy setting up the necessary software and making configurations the entire day to work from home. The atmosphere gave me a peculiar feeling and it seemed as if it was the last day of operations for the organisation, so much so that there is no confirmed end date given by management for this work-from-home arrangement. On the way home, I saw many people pushing suitcase which I assumed that they were carrying their computing equipments from office back to work from home for the entire month.
The day started relatively well for me as I managed to setup the mini desktop computer which I brought home from office and connect to office network via VPN successfully last night after reaching home. However, there are currently limited things which I can work on at home as some parts of the network has not been configured and the respective team of engineers are still working on this task in office. Productivity naturally decreases with distractions at home.
Lunch options for me are certainly more limited when I work at home. As my office is located at a town centre, an endless array of coffee shops, a hawker centre, cafeterias and even several fast food restaurants provide nearby residents and office workers many lunch options. Due to this mandatory work-from-home or cease operations arrangement which affects majority of the workforce, business remains sustainable for neighbourhood coffee shops or food courts. At the coffee shop opposite my house, all chairs were taken away and customers were seen queuing orderly inside and observing the 1 metre social distancing rule. The coffee shop owner has taken this opportunity to fix some lightings above the dining area next to the walkway where many elderly customers would congregate and smoke.
All facilities at condominiums must also remain closed. On my way to buy lunch, I saw the swimming pool area and the children's playground being sealed off with boundary tape with a notice saying that the facilities are closed till further notice. It is going to be a long boring month. There is nothing much one can do even on annual leave.
Nevertheless, everyone should do their part by observing all rules set by the authorities to curb the spread of this deadly virus that has already infected and killed tons of people worldwide. Together we can overcome this pandemic and bring life back to normal. Take care and stay safe!
References
Covid-19 circuit breaker measures: What you can and cannot do for the next one month
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