Temperature Screener Speaks About His Experience; Says At Least 3 People Forget to Wear a Mask Daily

2020-07-20 , 11:29 am

We have already been in the Phase 2 stage for about a month now, and it’s still difficult for us to ease into the norm of wearing masks every time we head out of the house and keep to 1m apart from one another.

After all, we haven’t been doing this for the years that we’ve been alive and only started doing this just a few months ago.

So it’s natural that sometimes we would leave the house and walk around for quite some time before realising, “I FORGOT MY MASK!”

Now, if you think you’re the only one, don’t worry, you’re not.

As it turns out, this is a common scenario as recounted by a Redditor who works as a Temperature Screener at one of the NTUC Fairprice supermarkets in Singapore.

Rushing In Front Of A Queue

His post starts off with the fact that despite the whole COVID-19 situation and how more measures are in place to ensure that everyone is safely checked before entering the premises of a mall or a store, many people disregard these and impatiently rush to the front of the queue, just so that they can enter faster.

He emphasises that while you may be in a rush, there are still others who are waiting to get their temperature checked. It is not a competition in which the one who gets their temperature checked first wins, so he hopes that this would serve as a reminder for all to patiently queue for their turn.

“Lower Your Tone”

In a separate experience, he and his colleague were told to lower their tones after reminding the customer to stand 1m apart from others.

He was anguished that so many people seem to disregard the fact that while social distancing doesn’t exactly stop the spread of COVID-19, it at least helps to “slow the spread” of it.

He wrote, “See the markings on the ground? Those are not for decorations, they are ugly and I wouldn’t put them in my Sims 4 house. Those are for you to stand. Please please stand at those markings. We are doing the right thing here so don’t tell us to lower our tone.”

At Least 3 People Forget Their Masks Daily

According to his observations, it seems that at least three people forget to wear their mask each day. He notes that many people wouldn’t need reminders to wear clothes to go out, so it is given that you should do the same with masks.

While he condemns those who forget to wear their masks, he is grateful that there are also those who immediately come back with a mask a few minutes later.

Other Redditors agree with him, but also told him that it is perfectly understandable that one may accidentally forget about wearing a mask when leaving the house.

We were previously very cautious about wearing masks, but as time goes by and wearing masks becomes a norm, it ironically becomes something that is easily forgotten, just like how sometimes we would forget to take our keys or wallet out of the house.

Redditors believe that those who should be condemned instead are those who refuse to wear their masks despite knowing how much harm they can cause to others.

Cultivate Good Habits

He ends off the post with some good habits that should be cultivated by everyone here. While the circuit breaker is over, it doesn’t mean that COVID-19 has been completely eradicated.

We should all still be careful about our actions and try to stay home as much as possible.

The good habits he listed are:

Wash hands with soap or use hand sanitiser;
Wear a mask;
Stand 1m away from the person in front of you / stand on the markings;
Don’t go out often;
Remind others to wear their masks when they are not wearing them.

Yes, remind others instead of taking videos of them.

Minister Reminds Singaporeans To Be Afraid Of ‘Second Wave’

Experts have said it and our dear Health Minister echoed the same thing, so if you’re happily thinking that the COVID-19 outbreak is under control and you can finally breathe easy, both figuratively and literally, then think again.

Recently, experts say that based on the trend overseas, there’s a chance that we might see a second wave of infections, but our strict enforcements might be able to prevent it.

This was followed by a warning from Singapore’s health minister, Gan Kim Yong, in a recent virtual press conference.

Similar to the experts, he based his warning on the events happening such as clusters forming in places like nightlife establishments and restaurants overseas, as well as people being socially irresponsible.

This, he explains, is why the task force is easing restrictions for “higher risk activities” carefully.

Be prepared for a second wave, he says, but they’ll try their best to avoid it happening.

Would There Really be Another Circuit Breaker?

No one knows yet, but Mr Gan said, “If the numbers go up, rather than a hard threshold beyond which we trigger another circuit breaker, or below which we just remain happy, when the numbers go up we do need to look at the nature of the numbers.”

And when it does go up, it might be specific actions targeted at the high-risk areas or activities.

In other words, if a lot of infections happen because people are getting infected in public toilets but none is happening from buying caipng, the next CB (if it happens) could involve people not being able to pee until they’re home but they can still buy caipng if they want to.

In the meantime, you can help stop the transmission of the virus by downloading the TraceTogether app. If you’re still worried about privacy, you might want to watch this video: