First Working Day of DORSCON Orange Leads to Long Queues Outside Office Buildings in CBD

What is Singapore’s unofficial sport? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me enlighten you:

Queueing.

Singaporeans love to queue, be it for the new iPhone, limited edition items or bubble tea store openings.

Lately, the things Singaporeans have enjoyed queueing for have been slightly different given the current situation.

Surgical masks, hand sanitizers and groceries like rice and instant noodles are all the rage, because haven’t you heard? It’s DORSCON Code Orange.

First Working Day of DORSCON Orange Leads to Long Queues Outside Office Buildings in CBD

It looks like even workplaces are getting hit hard by Singapore’s announcement that we are at DORSCON Code orange now.

Long queues could be seen outside office buildings in the CBD such as Suntec City and Raffles Place.

This was the result of the recent implementation of temperature screening of workers and visitors as the government increased measures in hopes of fighting the novel coronavirus.

According to The Straits Times, queues outside Suntec City began as early as 8am.

A bank compliance director had to wait over 40 minutes at Suntec City just to get his temperature taken as there were over 100 people in the queue.

There was reportedly two security staff carrying out the temperature checks at the entrance to Suntec City Tower Five.

The situation at Raffles Place was no different as long queues could also be spotted the office buildings near Raffles Place MRT entrances.

A bank executive who spoke to The Straits Times said, “It is ridiculous that (there is) only one thermometer at 8.30am when the line snakes all the way to the Raffles Place MRT exit.”

Pretty counterproductive don’t you think, given that the government is trying to remind us not to go to crowded places?

Lest you’re unaware, under the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON), code orange implies that the virus outbreak is seen to have a moderate to high public health impact.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has since increased the number of measures to tackle the further spread of the virus, such as through temperature taking.

At the time of writing, there are a total of 43 confirmed cases in Singapore, six of which are in critical condition.

A total of six people have recovered. Stay safe everyone.