Long Queues at Khatib MRT Station for Pre-School Staff COVID-19 Tests Were Due to a ‘Scheduling Issue’

Lest you didn’t already know, school is starting in two weeks, and Singapore would finally look a tad more normal from then on.

Come 2 June 2020, no longer would you have to stay home and hear your neighbour’s child screaming for his towel every evening.

For people working in pre-school, it’s slightly different: they’d have to be tested for COVID-19 before resuming work post Circuit Breaker, and they can do so between yesterday to 26 May 2020 at four swabbing centres located in polytechnics.

In case you’re thinking, “Hey, what the? Shouldn’t they be testing employees in nursing homes instead? I should run the country instead!”, hold your horses. Those people working in nursing homes are also tested by the authorities, and are even housed in special accommodation, while these working in pre-school would have to go do the tests themselves.

And so, the staff went for the test, and the solution to solve the problem becomes a problem itself.

Because of this:

Yes, a crowd.

Long Queues at Khatib MRT Station Was Due to a ‘Scheduling Issue’

This is when you come in again and said, “What the heck is this? They should have scheduled the tests mah! I should run the country instead!”

Hold your horses again.

This is due to a human error.

In fact, this only happened in Khatib MRT Station although there are four centres available: one at Dover, one at Tampines West, one at Woodlands and of course the last one at Khatib.

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They would need to board a bus to get to a swabbing centre

The viral image and videos of people queening up like they’re queueing for the last cup of bubble tea are due to a scheduling issue.

In fact, no such issue occurred in other areas.

Situation at Woodlands MRT Station:

Situation at Dover MRT Station:

Situation at Tampines MRT Station:

According to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, it happened yesterday (15 May 2020) because one of the pre-school operators appeared to have given the wrong timing or dates to the staff, and some staff had turned out earlier instead.

In other words, a schedule was actually made for them to come in batches over the next few days; it’s just that yesterday, some had come at the wrong timing.

The MSF immediately rectified the situation by deploying more buses to clear the crowd.

Here’s what they’ve written:

You may have seen videos of queues of preschool staff at Khatib MRT waiting to be taken for their precautionary COVID-19 swab tests. The queues at early morning and mid-day arose due to a scheduling issue for one of the preschool operators, which has since been resolved, and some staff turning up hours ahead of their scheduled slots.

One-time swab testing for around 30,000 preschool and early intervention staff started today, 15 May, and will take place till 26 May. The proactive testing is part of our stepped up monitoring to provide assurance to preschool staff and families to support the phased opening up of general services in the preschool sector. To allow for the tests to be conducted safely, we had scheduled for groups of preschool staff to be tested in batches over the coming days.

We thank the preschool operators and staff for their cooperation to keep the community safe and would like to encourage them to be present only at their assigned appointment slots. There is no need to arrive much earlier.

Colleagues from the Early Childhood and Development Agency (ECDA) are supporting the Health Promotion Board (HPB) which is conducting the swab tests operations. The frequency of buses ferrying the preschool staff was increased to clear the crowds quickly. The situation at Khatib MRT has eased since 11am.

We understand that the situation at the other transport points have been manageable, with safe distancing adhered to. Any queues at each location are being cleared quickly.

ECDA and HPB are also assisting the preschool staff to abide by safe distancing measures, and keeping a lookout for older staff who may need additional assistance.

We seek your understanding as we work together with HPB to improve on the processes to ensure the safety and welfare of everyone. We would like to once again thank our preschool staff for their cooperation and patience during this time and apologise for any inconvenience earlier in the day.

Now, if you still think you can run the country better, the General Elections should be conducted very soon. No one’s stopping you.

“I’d have revoked the licence of that pre-school operator that made a mistake.”

No wonder you’re not running the country.

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