Letter: S’pore Should Make WFH Default Until Cases Ease To Save Our Healthcare System

Default WFH Can Prevent Our Healthcare System From Being Overloaded

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We have over 1,000 Covid-19 cases daily for 2 days straight and they may swell to over 3,000 before the situation stabilises.

Why isn’t the Government making work from home (WFH) the default mode? It’s worrisome to see companies still at 50% capacity.

Workplace interactions and gatherings are things that employees look forward to when returning to the workplace, so it doesn’t make sense to let them come back with such rules in place.

Possible domino effect

Lots of people are returning to the CBD and workplaces, and this means that trains and buses are packed.

Wouldn’t the risk of transmission be high?

Look at the nightly MOH press releases, a number of the clusters formed due to workplace transmissions.

One of them is even Pfizer. Isn’t that ironic, even if the facility doesn’t produce vaccines?

Also, because we have to go back to their workplaces, many must rush to buy self-testing kits and go through the trouble of poking their noses once every 2-3 days.

Please return WFH to default mode for now

I get why the government does not wish to close borders or have another lockdown as many industries wouldn’t survive either.

But for the sake of everyone’s health and the healthcare system, the government can do more to minimise everyone’s movements, especially when many workers can WFH.

It can start by making WFH the default for all workers who don’t need to go to the workplace.

Instead of waiting for a snap WFH arrangement which can inconvenience people who shouldn’t be in the office at all, we should be proactive and reduce possible transmissions for now.

This can ease the burden on not only our frontliners but also people whose medical treatments are being delayed due to the current strain.

Katherine Lee

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Featured image adapted from Stayprepared.sg.

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