When SARS hit Singapore, it was not widely spread. It was easily spread only when the symptoms appear. The difference between Covid 19 is that it spreads even when the symptoms don’t appear.
This Covid 19 has taught us that Singapore is not ready for remote working. We are only just starting. Just look at the number of mothers who want to work from home due to various reasons but are unable to because of the mentality that those working from home may not do much.
The few companies that do support working from home are mostly private companies. There are certain job roles that do not really require the presence of the employee in the office. Administrative roles can now mostly be done online due to the collation of data being done digitally. There is the cloud security to think of, that is still true. No company data should be leaked online.
e-Learning is still a far cry. We have Busuu, Duolingo, Edx, Open 2 Study, Coursera, and a whole lot more online learning platforms. Yes, Skills Future Credits are given but they are mostly given for on site classes and few are valid to online courses. There are scam sites promising certificates and it can be tough to verify which certificate is real and which are not.
This spread of Covid 19 has also taught us that we panic buy when we think we might not have the chance to buy toilet paper. I didn’t realise that we will have runny asses when the Covid 19 hit us. I thought we would be stuck in the hospital and not be able to use those hoards of toilet paper.
With any spread of viruses that are transmitted via person to person and from the water droplets that pop out from the sneezes and coughs, it was thought to be common sense that we do not need to be told to avoid having close body contacts by hosting parties, attending dinners just because the refunds cannot be returned, flying to countries that are affected due to the deposits that will not be refunded and all.
Unfortunately, some selfish people are spreading the virus just because they got it, so others got to have it. When you are responsible for affecting and possibly the sole reason why your already frail grandma or grandpa got sick from Covid 19 since you are the source, you got the rest of your life to feel sick for yourself and be guilty.
Being the Typhoid Mary is not a joke. It is something that you carry for life. Living in denial doesn’t mean that you are not the carrier. Being written down in history for being the carrier is not something to be proud of.
While the ugly side of humans were shown, the kind side were shown too. Some neighbourhood lifts had hand sanitisers and wipes for people who were unable to get any. These were donated by the residents in the blocks.
In order to attract clients, some cleaning companies have given out wipes, masks or hand santisers just for using their services for first timers. The hard hit shops have shorter opening hours while other shops are having promotions.
Some landlords have provided discounted rates for the shop owners in terms of rent until the Covid 19 is controlled or eradicated.
