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Monday, March 16, 2020

The Lockdown

Yesterday, the stay-home notice for all travellers entering Singapore from ASEAN countries news reached my WhatsApp around 18.30. The boarding announcement came minutes after. I took the 19.15 flight to Jakarta.

Inside the eerie, empty plane.

I cursed a bit, never anticipating such notice would happen. This must be tough, at the same time brave decisions to be made. The gov of Singapore must have thought this thru. It was definitely not a decision that could be made in a blink of an eye. The repercussions were huge! This basically stopped ASEAN tourists from coming in. No one would come just to be quarantined for 14 days. And this worsened the situation of the airlines and tourism industry. Both were already hit hard earlier. For Singapore, it would further dampen the economical situation. This is the statistics from 2019, taken from Singapore Tourism Board. The numbers alone were significant, not to mention their spending yet.


So back to the news, many would get impacted. Beside tourists, people who planned to visit Singapore for medical or business trips would be affected. In fact, two passengers from the same flight I took immediately decided to cancelled their trip to Jakarta.

I would also like to share an article which is quite logical to me. The essence of it was, outside China, during the initial outbreak, many countries were too ignorant of COVID 19 issues. When it finally hit, it hit really hard. I could almost relate with what the article was saying: our working environment, our communities, our surrounding, our family. 

The timeline of Coronavirus, part 1.
From: Time magazine. 

I used to be the one who thought, "come on, I won't be so unlucky to caught the COVID-19." But let's pause here and think:
Think of the what if.
Think of the risk.
Think of your loved ones.
Think of the time you might spent if one of your family members caught the virus.
Think of the money you might spent.
Finally think of how you might cause the loss of lives, be it direct or indirect.


The timeline of Coronavirus, part 2.
From: Time magazine.

Stay vigilant, avoid mass gathering, ensure your hygiene, and stay healthy. I'm not saying this will keep you safe, but at least we do our best...

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