Singapore breaks the circuit

Hello friends!

Singapore never tried to oversimplify its fight against the pandemic, the rest of us did it for them! Now, things are getting complicated quickly with an increase in cases and chatter of a ‘second wave.’ Dystopic reporting from the city’s migrant worker dormitories show how for all the (genuinely) impressive tech and tracing, this is really about people. 

Most coronavirus related coverage will remain free for all readers and your support allows that to happen. To become a premium subscriber do so here for $6 a month or $60 for the year:

Thank you and stay healthy!Erin Cook

Overnight, the Health Ministry reported the country’s highest one day jump with 386 new cases. It also reported the ninth death. That figure includes four newly identified clusters and the huge majority of the new cases are reportedly migrant workers.

I love the term ‘circuit breaker’. That’s what Singapore is calling its social-distancing measures after fears of cases spiralling out of control. This is interesting because the city has been the favourite example of critics of school shutdowns and the like elsewhere. Also interesting because holy heck look at this photo essay. 

In deeply Singapore fashion, you can’t go visit your boyf but you can scootch over and stay there for the circuit breaker period if you’re engaged. So maybe get engaged! The city’s famous hawkers remain open for takeaway and I love this Singlish website that lets you know if you can or cannot go somewhere.

The circuit breaker measures are no joke, National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) clinical director Shawn Vasoo said Monday. "The attitude of some members of the public is lackadaisical. More people are going to die and unfortunately, this includes more Singaporeans too if they do not adhere to the circuit breaker," he said, as reported by the Straits Times. 

These measures are all part of efforts to stave off a second wave of infections. While the country has been rightfully praised for its management, public health experts and lawmakers alike warned Singapore was not and would not be out of the dark for some time yet. But recent outbreaks around migrant worker dorms show how unevenly the city will deal with that darkness.

For more than 20,000 migrant workers living at two dormitories, life under the pandemic isn’t Netflix and scrolling GrabFood aimlessly. Amnesty International has sounded the alarm on conditions in the facilities. “The rapid spread of COVID-19 among migrant workers in Singapore was already alarming. The fact that thousands are now under quarantine in extremely close proximity could be a recipe for disaster, unless their basic rights are respected,” Singapore researcher Rachel Chhoa-Howard said in a statement. 

This long feature from Channel News Asia takes a look at what life is like inside migrant worker dormitories which are now under a mandatory quarantine following an outbreak. I would really encourage a full read of this piece, it really puts into perspective the differing experiences of the pandemic in the city and within the dormitories themselves. We’ll be keeping a close watch on this in the coming weeks (and please read the Kirsten Han piece below), but there are also some immediate lessons for abroad. 

Prof Yik-Ying Teo, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health told BBC the situation "is an indication of what will happen in some other countries, particularly the lower middle income, less well-resourced countries.” Prof Li Yang Hsu, also at SSH, said: "the virus has been very efficient at highlighting to us the weaknesses of our societies — that's certainly the case for the migrant worker communities.”

Covid forces Singapore to confront conditions for its migrant workers (Lowy Institute)

Long before the first coronavirus cluster emerged in a dormitory, migrant rights groups in Singapore like Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) were already highlighting issues with overcrowded, unsanitary, and otherwise substandard living conditions. As HOME’s operations manager Luke Tan told me: “In terms of social humanitarian reasons, we already mentioned something like this [a virus outbreak] is like a disaster waiting to happen.”

The disaster is now here. On 5 April, the Singapore government announced that it had gazetted two dormitories as “isolation areas” after large clusters had been identified (98 confirmed cases at the S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, and 34 at the Westlite Toh Guan dormitory). A third dormitory nearby with 18 cases has since also been gazetted as an isolation area. What this means is that at least 20,000 or so men – 13,000 at S11 and 6,800 at Westlite, plus an unknown number at the third site, Toh Guan Dormitory – are now confined to their rooms for 14 days. The figures appear staggering.

Singapore’s Migrant Worker Debate: Advocacy Amid a Pandemic (The Diplomat)

The quick mobilization of NGOs and civil society was arguably instrumental in putting pressure on the government, and in monitoring the situation as it continuously developed. When a viral photo of poor quality food being delivered to migrant workers surfaced, the government was similarly quick to apologize and provide reassurance that it would work with caterers to improve food quality for migrant workers.

The success of civil society in catalyzing the government into action was also dependent on citizens’ support, particularly in signaling their discontent. Articles detailing the poor conditions of dormitories quickly went viral, and many people took to the internet to express anger about the situation.

“I think that if anything, I want to keep people’s attention that we can have wins, that citizens have power and public pressure matters,” Kokila, a local activist, said. “… It’s never going to be enough if scattered activists, journalists, and academics are occasionally bringing attention and speaking up about it. It’s only going to create a sense of urgency for the state if there is a collective voice.”