NCID Head Gives More Info About 5-Day MC: You’d Have to Wear a Mask at Home, Too

Lest you didn’t know, Singapore is very, very different today.

Malls now have checkpoints, we now can’t smell the shampoo of the person queuing in front of you and from now on, if we receive a 5-day MC for respiratory illnesses, we can’t even leave our house.

The 5-day MC has effectively become a 5-day Stay-Home Notice.

Also, if you’d have realised, the quality of Netflix in Singapore has also dropped quietly as the streaming giant is saving bandwidth due to an influx of people staying home to watch Crash Landing on You.

But even if you’re at home, things would have to change as well—especially if you’ve got the 5-day MC.

Because other than it becoming a paper that could land you in jail should you still be an irresponsible brat, you’d have to take precautionary measures as well.

NCID Head Gives More Info About 5-Day MC: Told to Avoid Contact with Everyone in the House

Technically speaking, this is common sense, but when people are shocked at they can’t go out to dance with friends when they have an MC, I’m guessing that we need an updated version of common sense.

After the whole hoo-ha about how powderful the almighty 5-day MC is, the head of National Centre for Infectious Diseases’ (NCID), executive director Leo Yee Sin, has come out to tell us what to do when we’re issued with it.

Or to be even more specific, what do to when we’ve got respiratory illnesses.

Before that, here’s the new rule if you’ve not read our previous article (download our app here so you won’t miss any of our easy-to-read articles): when you’re issued with the 5-day MC, you can’t even leave your house to buy food from the day you’re bestowed with the paper that used to make you cheer, which people in the army called “Attend C”.

Failure to comply with that could mean a $10,000 fine or up to six months’ imprisonment.

Today, Prof Leo told us what needs to be done at home.

Avoid the Elderly AT ALL COST

The first thing you need to do is to avoid any elderly family member you have at home at all cost. In case you still didn’t know, the fatality rate is much higher for older people:

But that doesn’t mean you can kiss your kids.

Avoid Contact with all Family Members

For other family members, you should also avoid any contact with them, and this includes mealtime. This means you shouldn’t have a meal with them, or sit next to them while watching TV.

Just imagine yourself having chickenpox lah and you’re trying to avoid passing the virus to them.

The magic number? Keep a 1m or 2m distance from anyone, and if possible, don’t hand itchy and touch everything you see because the virus can be spread via a contaminated object.

Practise Good Personal Hygiene and Wear a Mask Even When You’re at Home.

Wash your hands more often, don’t dig your nose when you’re alone and most importantly, wear a mask.

Yes, even when you’re at home.

You should know that a mask helps to keep the virus at bay. By now, you should have some masks at home unless you’re a kiasi fellow who wears a mask even when you’re not sick.

Read this article on how to wear a mask correctly.

“But It Turns Out That I’m Just Having the Seasonal Flu!”

I know. But do you know that the whole idea of social distancing is to treat every single person as an infected individual?

That’s precisely why you’re seeing tapes on hawker centre seats—if everyone does their part and lives his or her life like they’re infected individuals, the outbreak can be slowed down by a lot, which would lead to more lives saved as the healthcare system won’t be strained.

You can watch this video to understand more:

In the meantime, if you really want to help, you can download the TraceTogether app.

Let’s create history and tell your grandkids in the future that you’ve done your part in fighting a nasty bug called COVID-19. After all, it’s just 5 days; I can lead that kind of life for 5 weeks.