HPB Said Long Waiting Time at Some COVID-19 Screening Centres Was Due to a Technical Glitch

These days, we try not to gather in crowded areas for too long – we’ve seen way too many articles that indicate that staying in crowded areas for prolonged periods of time increases your chances of being infected with COVID-19.

Furthermore, with the number of COVID-19 cases hitting a new record almost every day for the past few weeks, it’s even scarier to be out and about now.

Most of us only leave our homes for essential activities, like going to work, getting food, or going for swab tests.

However, a technical glitch at some of the COVID-19 screening centres during the weekend left many afraid for their own health as they had to wait in line for at least two hours after their initial appointment time before they could do their swab test.

HPB Said Long Waiting Time at Some COVID-19 Screening Centres Was Due to a Technical Glitch

According to the Health Promotion Board (HPB), the swab registration system experienced a technical glitch that resulted in “intermittent system-wide outages” from 1 to 3 October. It was also reported that each outage lasted between a few minutes to 30 minutes.

Based on what was reported by those on the ground, out of the five regional screening centres we have, two were affected – the ones at Da Qiao Primary School and the former Bishan Park Secondary School.

CNA reported that one of their readers was at the screening centre at Da Qiao Primary School and he was told that the waiting time for a swab test was 150 minutes.

That’s more than two hours.

He observed that there were some workers who had to do their RRT (rostered routine testing) in order to continue working. However, despite explaining their situation to the staff at the swab centre, these workers were turned away.

Another reader who was at the screening centre at the former Bishan Park Secondary School on Thursday said that when he arrived at 2pm for his 2:15pm polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test appointment, he was met with the sight of a long queue that extended from the screening centre to the exit of an MRT station along the main road.

He revealed that upon checking with the others who were in line with him, he realised that all of them had the same appointment timing as him. He also said that some of the people who were in the queue were on quarantine, while some others were construction sector workers there for routine screening.

When asked for a response, HPB explained that it manually registered individuals for their tests during this glitch. This was so that the impact on operations could be minimised and that all of their clients could complete their swab tests.

HPB reported that the issue has already been solved, but moving forward, they will run more tests on the system so that such technical glitches won’t occur again.

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