Life under quarantine: No hazmat suits but aunties and plenty of zombies
What happens when you're given a 14-day quarantine order? Do people in hazmat suits, full masks and goggles a la Naomi Campbell show up? Practice they snap on a double layer of latex gloves before grabbing yous past the armpits and escorting you into a pathogen-proof vehicle to transport yous domicile?
I'm happy to report that's all Hollywood. Mine – which just ended on Mar 19 – was a bit more mundane. Except for the fact it all began with a knock on my door at most 10.45pm. Yes, that'southward "pm".
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A petite auntie sent by the Ministry of Health (MOH) appeared at my apartment. She was dressed like she was going to enquire me out for qigong class. I couldn't tell from behind her mask if she was smiling only she possessed a no-nonsense air that was similar to my mum'south when she wanted me to clean my room.
Centre-aged Marie Kondo was accompanied by ii burly Certis officers in uniforms, boots, masks and latex gloves (only non double layered). "How are you feeling?" the auntie enquired politely, peering at me over her gold-rimmed spectacles, equally if appraising me for my worthiness of a free digital thermometer and masks.
NO LONGER MERE SUSPICIONS
And then how did I get myself into this situation? My partner and I were in the same bouldering gym every bit Case 142 on Mar 5, a Thursday, but we didn't know most it. That Sunday, a friend informed us that a boulderer was suspected to be linked to the SAFRA Jurong cluster.
"Nah, can't exist. People are more socially responsible than that," I muttered. I might have since misplaced my faith in humanity.
Information technology was no longer mere suspicions when I received a telephone call from MOH that very Sun afternoon. "An officer volition be visiting you lot at your home in 24 hours or then to serve you the abode quarantine papers," said the voice in a tone usually used to calm infants. "In the meantime, don't leave your apartment, okay?"
Expect, what? The quarantine has begun?
I felt a knot in my gut. In that location were just me, my partner and a dozen houseplants at domicile. Even if we switched to a institute-based diet pronto, the contents of our flat weren't plenty to feed united states of america for a twenty-four hour period. Was it time to accept a panic set on?
Up until that point, I'd joined in chastising Singaporeans' irrational hoard-buying before the COVID-19 situation was elevated to pandemic status. Simply I'd peered into the center of darkness and, well, I'yard ashamed to say I wanted to scream: "We don't take plenty instant noodles!!!"
"What are you fretting virtually?" said my partner, jolting me out of my self-induced panic. "There's FairPrice Online and GrabFood what." He calmly opened his laptop and fired up the search engine.
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So, starvation averted. But no amount of online searching helped to quell the unsettling thought we both had: Could we have caught the virus? Every time I sneezed, coughed or had a scratchy feeling in the throat, I got paranoid. Is this it? Do I demand a ventilator before long?
And because we didn't want to alarm ourselves, we were constantly justifying our throat-immigration with, "Not actually coughing. Just choked on saliva, that'due south all".
DON'T LEVEL Upward
The fourteen-twenty-four hours quarantine period commenced from Mar 5, the 24-hour interval of potential contact with the infected person, and non Mar 9 when MOH visited me. That meant I only had to spend 10 days indoors.
Existence served a quarantine gild ways you'll become very familiar with your temperature. Other than non leaving the confines of my apartment, I had to take my temperature three times a twenty-four hours. This level of monitoring advances to hourly if I recorded 37.5 degrees Celsius and above.
And then, at that place'south the Boss level, or hitting 38 degrees Celsius and above. In video-game speak, that means battling the game's ultimate adversary. Exterior of the RPG globe, I should exist calling an MOH number for the ambulance to get me if I got that hot. This was no game and you don't want to level upward.
Staff from MOH would also be randomly calling me on WhatsApp Video three times a mean solar day to tape my temperature and encounter that I hadn't sneaked out of my flat. That meant keeping my handphone past my side at all times. Break the quarantine order and it'd either cost me up to Southward$10,000, up to six months in jail, or both.
AUNTIE TASKFORCE
The side by side morning, I woke up to come across a missed telephone call at i.30am on my handphone – and it was an MOH number. Yikes. My partner phoned back and was told that there would be another visit; this time, to serve him his quarantine lodge.
While draining our coffee and joking they'd exist electronically tagging us for missing the call, there was a knock on the door. Like a glitch in the Matrix, it was a little auntie once more! Just this was a unlike one (I stared actually hard to define that) and she was hither with just one Certis officeholder.
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As Auntie No 2 carried out her routine, I couldn't help but wonder: Is in that location a contingent of aunties going effectually the island to serve people their quarantine documents? And what does this auntie taskforce exercise during non-COVID-19 times?
Those frivolous questions would have to wait as the pair seemed to be on a tight schedule. I shortly establish out why. "We take almost 200 cases per shift on boilerplate," said the officer. "Nosotros work 12-hour shifts but sometimes, it tin exist upward to fifteen hours if the cases take longer," chimed Auntie No 2.
With that, the duo gathered the signed papers, said their well wishes and good-byes, and walked off into the lift lobby that seemed so close, all the same so far abroad for me.
LOTS OF ZOMBIES
And now, the big question: How did I spend my time while beingness quarantined? Like many Singaporeans, in front end of the television. I caught the latest season of the South-Korean drama Kingdom and rewatched the commencement season until I felt as stiff as the zombies. But since I couldn't physically fight the coronavirus, watching people hack upwards the flesh-chomping undead with swords was a somewhat cathartic metaphor.
On the whole, beingness quarantined wasn't as well much of a departure from my usual routine as working from dwelling house wasn't new to me. The only times I felt restless were the weekend and subsequently-piece of work hours. No eating out, no hanging out and most certainly, no bouldering.
READ: Working from home? How to stop gaining weight from all that snacking
Speaking of exercise, I did have a cursory dalliance with Tabata workouts, a class of loftier-intensity interval training. But somewhere between the first and second set up of burpees, I decided that loftier-calorie snacking was more of my thing. I'd just allow my jiggly $.25 grow.
My partner was more committed to the spirit of climbing though. "Since we're stuck at habitation, wanna take a film like this?" he asked eagerly, showing me the Instagram post beneath. "Quite funny, right?"I pretended I didn't hear him and continued snacking. At to the lowest degree I wasn't strangling him with the climbing rope.
BACK TO LIFE
As surely as the Kingdom zombies coming dorsum to life in the cold Dongnae weather condition, I'll exist dragging myself – along with a few extra kilos – back to the bouldering gym once again later on the quarantine ends.
Although I was initially upset about beingness quarantined despite non doing annihilation to jeopardise the customs's health, I was heartened by the show of kindness. We received offers of help for grocery runs too as gifts of fruits, flowers and baked treats. Online, encouragement from friends and colleagues fed our spirits and bodacious us that we weren't alone in this. And when obstacles came upwardly, such every bit a also-rigid security guard who wouldn't let delivery personnel to come up to my flooring, the building's cleaner stepped in to help.
I may have started the quarantine feeling dismayed merely I ended it with a full center and a very full belly.
The day before Mar 19, I received a call from MOH – and information technology wasn't the usual one-way WhatsApp Video where I couldn't run across the caller's face. "Your temperature looks fine and you don't accept whatsoever symptoms. Yous tin can open up your door and walk out afterwards 12pm tomorrow," said the staff.
The sweetest words I'd heard in 10 days.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/wellness/singapore-quarantine-order-experience-259721
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