Covid-19 crisis Horrendous management of Covid-19 infected family
Shared in social media. The system of communication adopted by MOH is chaotic. 
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My wife, 1-year old son and myself recently returned from Bangkok on 20th October 2021 and served our 10-day mandatory Stay Home Notice (SHN) at Carlton Hotel.

Our pre-departure PCR swap test and on-arrival PCR swap test at Changi Airport results were negative. On the 10th day of our SHN, we went through an exit PCR swap test and awaited results the next morning for check-out of our SHN.

To our surprise, we tested positive. We had not left our room for all 10 days or interacted with anyone, so this came as a shock.

My result was the first to be out on the morning of 30th October 2021 and kicked-off a frenzy of calls from Contact Tracing Officers and other MOH Officers.

After giving all the necessary details of my travel history and particulars, MOH had a driver call me to inform me that I will be picked up at 3pm to be transferred to a Community Care Facility (CCF) in Sentosa.

As my wife’s result was still pending confirmation, I called MOH to inform them I would like to wait for my wife’s result so that we can be transported to a CCF together as I’m not comfortable leaving my wife and baby to be alone.

The MOH officer accepted my request and got the 3pm transport to stand down.

Shortly after, an MOH officer called me back and confirmed that my wife is unfortunately also tested positive. The officer went on to specifically tell me to pack our luggages and await transport arrangements for our whole family to a CCF.

We packed everything and waited, two hours passed and still no update, it was already around 6pm by then.

Called back to MOH, they said there’s nothing that can be done but wait, the officer on the phone then advised us to unpack our luggage and just resume our usual activity until someone calls us with an update. So we did…dinner, shower and sleep.

The next morning, 31st October 2021, nobody called us so I called MOH once again. Let me also point out that each time I made a call to MOH at 6812 5555, there was a waiting time of approximately 20-30 minutes before someone actually answers my call and each time they answered my call, they would ask for my wife and my particulars in detail all over again.

So the officer on the phone apologized that no arrangement was eventually made the day before and promised to escalate my case immediately. Home Recovery Programme (HRP) was also suggested but I told them I am not eligible as I have my grandmother in the household who is above 80 years old, making my home ineligible for HRP.

So we waited.

When someone finally called back in the afternoon, it was from the hotel reception saying that an ambulance is here to pick us up.

There was no prior call to tell us to get ready so I requested for some time to wake my sleeping baby up, get dressed and pack my luggages. When all that was done, I called the receptionist and said we’re ready to be picked up from our room as we can’t leave our room unescorted.

Then came the biggest trigger of this whole waiting saga, the receptionist said the ambulance has decided to leave as they were only expecting to pick my wife and myself, they did not expect a baby as well.
Let me highlight that by this point, almost 48 hours after being informed of testing positive, not a single MOH officer throughout all the phone calls asked if we are having any fever or other symptoms.

Nobody offered to send us a thermometer or oximeter or and form of medication. Also, at this point of time is when I truly regret coming back to Singapore.

I have been stuck in Thailand for almost two years due to Covid-19 and have not seen my family members for as long. In fact, this is such an important homecoming trip as this is the first time my family members will be seeing my newborn baby for the first time.

All of this plus all of us being tested positive for Covid-19, can you all imagine the amount of disappointment and distress going through us.
So for a second time and fed up with false promises, we unpacked our luggage once again and decided to give up on any hope of being transported to a CCF.

Worried for our health, I called MOH one last time to repeat the whole situation and the officer on the phone once again said the matter will be escalated with urgency, giving me hope once again.

When they finally called back in the evening, they left me flabbergasted with the options presented to me.

Option 1, they do not have any CCF facility that can accommodate 3 of us, so they have to separate me and my wife, and one of us take the baby with us. Then why for almost two days why keep promising us a facility for the 3 of us to be together? Looking after a baby alone is no easy matter, and now being infected with Covid, makes it even more difficult and definitely will affect recovery right? Wait till you hear

Option 2, send all 3 of us back to my home for HRP and then transfer my grandmother out of my home to another facility since she is above 80 and having her around will make HRP not possible. Why would you want to transfer my Covid-free and healthy grandmother to another place? What’s this?

Dear readers, enlighten me please, who in the right mind would come up with this?

I obviously rejected both options and asked them to make the solution previously promised to me happen, and I also requested to stop all forms of communication with MOH by phone but only by email instead. Didn’t have a choice, with such horrendous management up to this point, I thought it would be better to have everything in black and white, so nobody could just say what they want on the phone and not be responsible for it.

Two days since testing positive, no medical treatment catered, no medical facility provided, going to sleep once again…

Iavn Teenoi Thai
-The family in Room 1943, Carlton Hotel

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