Bukit Panjang MP Reminds Residents to Collect COVID-19 Self-Test Kits Through a Loud Speaker at a Playground

By
Shawn Ambrose
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These days, if you want to get the word out about something, all you have to do is tap your thumbs a few times on your phone.

Social media, WhatsApp, and online news sites are all effective ways to spread a message or make an announcement.

However, if residents are simply scrolling through a piece of news, not all of them will pay special attention to it.

This is why one Member of Parliament (MP) decided to do something a little more old school: blasting his voice through a loudspeaker.

Bukit Panjang MP Reminds Residents to Collect COVID-19 Self-Test Kits Through a Loud Speaker at a Playground

If you live in Bukit Panjang and woke up to a loud, reverberating voice talking about antigen rapid test (ART) test kits, you might have wondered if God was recently hired as the government’s public relations officer.

Resident: God… is that you?

God: No lah, it’s your MP. 

It turns out that the booming voice was that of Mr Liang Eng Hwa’s, the MP for Bukit Panjang.

In an attempt to get more residents in the area to collect their ART kits, Mr Liang used a loudspeaker to spread the word about the health ministry’s latest distribution drive.

As you know, several markets and food centres have been linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster, which currently has 1,045 cases.

One of the latest markets to be linked to the cluster is Fajar Market, which has at least three cases.

This is why residents living in the vicinity of Fajar Market, as well as 497 Jurong West Street 41 Market, can now collect free ART kits, so the authorities can ringfence new cases quicker.

Reader: Okay, so why did that MP use the loudspeaker again?

Ah yes, that.

Well, as Mr Liang told The Straits Times, 30,000 kits had been prepared for this distribution exercise, which was supposed to start yesterday morning (1 Aug) at 10am.

However, in the first 30 minutes, only 30 to 40 residents had come to collect their kits.

So instead of getting the word out online, which would have taken time, Mr Liang used a loudspeaker instead.

“Sorry to disturb you on a Sunday morning… I just want to inform everyone that we will be distributing ART (antigen rapid test) self-test kits,” he reportedly said.

One by one, residents opened their windows to listen to Mr Liang, and even applauded him after his announcement.

It seemed to have worked, as more residents made their way down to the collection centre after the announcement.

If you’d like to collect your ART kit but are unsure where to go, head here for more information.

PCR vs ART

In case you don’t know, an ART test is faster and less intrusive than a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, making it easy for residents to test themselves if needed.

Its sensitivity and specificity are lower than that of a PCR’s, but it has still accurately detected many infections.

This is why individuals who report symptoms of acute respiratory infection at a clinic will undergo both an ART and PCR test; the ART result will come back first, and if it’s positive, the individual will be isolated.

If you test positive on an ART at home, or get an invalid result twice, you will need to follow up with a confirmatory PCR test at a Swab and Send Home (SASH) clinic.

Learn the difference between an antigen test and a PCR test here:

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Featured Image: Youtube (The Straits Times)

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]