With all the restrictions in place thanks to Covid-19, life seems so foreign it’s almost unrecognisable.
At one point during the pandemic, for instance, meeting your friends could have landed you in jail.
While many restrictions are relaxed now, life is nowhere close to returning to normal.
Our borders, for instance, only accept certain travellers, and that too with a host of inconvenient safety measures.
But if you thought this was the first time Singapore had to grapple with a severe disease outbreak, you’d be wrong.
Forget SARS, Singapore was struggling with the threat of imported diseases before the drinking straw was even invented.
In 1866, S’pore Also Had To Deal With Travellers Carrying Infectious Diseases; Here’s How They Dealt With It
In the 1800s, the influx of immigrants to Singapore brought various infectious diseases, such as smallpox, leprosy, and cholera to the island.
Just like the authorities are doing now, health inspections and regulations were introduced back then to control the spread of such diseases.
The concern was that if left unchecked, an epidemic would soon break out.
This culminated in The Quarantine Ordinance, which was enacted in 1968 to “make provision for the better prevention of the spread of contagious diseases”.
Yes, people in the 1800s were issued stay-home notices, too. Only it was more like a stay-ship notice.
At the time, planes hadn’t been invented yet, and the main mode of transport between countries was via the seas, and this was where the threat of imported infections came from.
According to Singapore Infopedia, The Quarantine Ordinance dictated that vessels which arrived with onboard cases of diseases such as cholera, smallpox, or fever, would not be permitted to enter the port.
This is because the onboard cases posed a danger to public health.
As such, the vessel would have to anchor outside the limits of the port and no passengers would be allowed to disembark.
Sound familiar? Well, it’s because we did the same thing when a passenger tested positive on board a “cruise to nowhere”.
Communication with any person onboard the quarantined vessel was also prohibited and the vessel was required to hoist the quarantine or yellow flag.
These quarantine measures would only be lifted once there was medical evidence that the vessel was no longer a threat to public health.
Resistance to Safety Measures
Just like the uncles and aunties at coffee shops who were resistant to the circuit breaker, so were some merchants to the Quarantine Ordinance.
The Straits Settlements Association, which mainly comprised merchants, objected to the imposition of quarantine measures as they were concerned it would cause unnecessary interference to trade.
This is happening during the Covid-19 pandemic too, with border restrictions decimating the tourism industry, and in turn, taking a toll on the economy.
Moreover, medical experts disagreed at the time over the effectiveness of quarantine.
However, a report by the British Cholera Commission in 1866, which recommended the adoption of quarantine measures, shifted public opinion on quarantine.
Even then, the quarantine measures drew criticism from those who thought they were were “unnecessarily stringent”.
The mercantile community also protested that the quarantine was inconvenient and “useless for the end in view”.
But boy, were they wrong.
Cholera Epidemic Erupts in 1873
In 1873, a cholera epidemic broke out in Singapore.
Despite a quarantine order for all vessels from Siam, the disease managed to find its way from Bangkok to Singapore.
The epidemic only lasted three months, but it infected 857 people and claimed 448 lives.
This prompted the authorities to construct a quarantine station on St John’s Island.
St John’s Island Quarantine Station
Soon after it opened in 1874, the St John’s Island quarantine station received more than 1,000 Chinese passengers from the cholera-stricken vessel S.S. Milton, which had arrived from Swatow.
When it was first opened, the station comprised mostly attap huts, which is a traditional type of housing found in the kampongs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The station was redeveloped over the years with more added facilities, and even had a hospital built at its site in 1894.
Over time, St John’s Island quarantine station became one of the largest quarantine stations in the world, as it could accommodate up to 6,000 people at any one time.
Patients quarantined at the facility largely comprised immigrants from China and India, who suffered from infectious diseases such as the bubonic plague.
Then, in 1948, the quarantine station was used as a holding area for political detainees and members of secret societies.
A number of camps were later used as a rehabilitation centre for drug and opium addicts.
The station was finally closed in 1976.
The Looming Threat of an Epidemic
As this tale from history shows, the threat of an epidemic has always been looming over us.
While the Covid-19 restrictions can get tiresome, it’s our only defence against the coronavirus.
Featured Image: Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)
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