‘Tis Christmas day today and a surreal Christmas week indeed… Strange things started to happen on 21 Dec and overwhelmed my whole family as things snowballed from one event to another.
We had returned from our 2 weeks vacation on 17 Dec and started our 7 days of compulsory Covid ART testing. The first was the PCR test we booked at the airport when we landed. The negative results were posted to our TraceTogether app within 2 hours, which was pretty impressive.
Our older son had finished his first term of school in the UK in early Dec and went for a holiday with his schoolmates in Italy before a week of skiing in the French Alps. Geneva was the nearest airport for him to fly back to S’pore via a stopover at Zurich. He had done a few PCR tests and the required certified ART and tested negative just before the flight back on 20 Dec.
An idea of the troubles to come then started. He was unable to board the connecting flight from Geneva to Zurich even though his ART test was negative. They told him a more comprehensive PCR was required based on Switzerland rules even though that was not required for S’pore. In hindsight, we forgot that Switzerland is not part of the EU and hence they operate on separate procedures.
We spoke to him and discussed options we could take, to delay his flight back as he would not have enough time to get a new PCR result in time. Thankfully, the station manager there managed to get an exemption for him to vouch that he was leaving the country via Zurich. He managed to board the flights as per plan. In hindsight, maybe a delay of his flight would have been better.
He arrived in Changi at 6 am on 21 Dec and took the PCR test before heading home directly. Because the results were not out yet by late morning, we chatted briefly with him at home while exercising some social distance between us as a safety precaution. I then headed for a lunch appointment with an undergraduate who was my new mentee for this year, whom I had not met up face to face yet except for 3 video calls to date.
Then the bomb was dropped right after noon time. Son called and told me his PCR test was positive. We needed to do damage control asap. I told my lunch partner that I had to leave for home immediately. We regrouped and moved to a previously agreed contingency plan to use the 3rd floor as an isolation room for him as there was an attached bathroom.
The authorities started to kick start action plans to contain the situation. All members of our household were placed on a Health Risk Warning order. Each person received a call and SMS messages to tell us what needs to be done. We kept our distance from him as he brought all the necessary stuff to the isolation room and kept the door closed at all times. The rest of us had to submit daily self-test ART results online for the next 7 days. Only when it was negative were we then allowed to leave the house every day.
This continued for the next 3 days as we await any follow up calls from MOH (Ministry of Health). No call was a good sign but they made the dreaded call on the morning of Day 4 – Christmas eve, 24 Dec. He was informed that he had the Omicron variant and hence the containment protocol had to be escalated. He has to be transported to a designated facility immediately. On top of that, all members of the household must also be sent to another facility for a 10 days quarantine. Shits!!!
Omicron news is now creating havoc all over the world. It is 7 times more contagious. Over the last 48 hours, new data strongly suggest that symptoms are mild and hospitalization/deaths low. But our country’s protocol on Omicron was cast in stone more than a month ago before we had any data on the mutation. So no matter how we argued about having so many negative daily ART results, we were screwed. The whole family plus our domestic helper will have to embark on an enforced “holiday” staycation at a designated hotel for the next 10 days 🙁
We decided to make the best of the situation and I started to prepare the Christmas eve dinner for our smaller group, pending any “new” developments. They called at 5 pm to inform my son that the transport will arrive in 30 minutes to pick him up. I quickly did up a platter of food for him to gobble up before an ambulance with fully suited safety agents came to take him away. We were told that he will be taken to the National Center of Infectious Disease.
The 4 of us proceeded to try to have a quiet Christmas eve celebration dinner with some Spanish tapas dishes and Jamon ham. Then they called again to say someone will be here soon to give us all a new PCR test. We had an erroneous SMS earlier in the afternoon that informed all of us that we tested positive for a PCR test we haven’t had with a future date – 25 Dec LOL. They called back later to apologize for the cockup when we enquired about the confusing SMS.
Anyway, the fully suited medical personnel came over to poke our noses for the PCR test. We apologize to each other for spoiling our Christmas eve. Poor guy has to work through the festive period. As we wait for the results which would take a few hours, we knew that we could at least spend one more night at home before our enforced staycation. They were trying to arrange the logistics to transport all of us the next morning.
In late morning the following day (Christmas day, 25 Dec), the ambulance van came to take all of us to the designated facility. My neighbour who just drove home while we were being loaded up must have been shocked to see a van with masked medical personnel taking all of us away… We were told that it was a hotel nearby and it was probably for all the household members that were affected. Thankfully, another neighbour agreed to help us feed our fishes and water the plants while there will be no one at home for a while.
The evening before, we checked with our older son to find out where he was and to ensure that he was alright. He told us that he was now placed in a hotel in Novena and he was sharing a room with a complete stranger!!! We were flabbergasted that he was sharing a room with another Covid positive patient. Bloomberg had an article a day earlier that talked about horror stories of people being hijacked from their homes and separated from their partners and children. And now we realized first hand that it is true! https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/omicron-upends-singapore-s-travel-strategy-as-returning-residents-face-chaos?sref=TCJIUe33
I think that the authorities were scrambling with resources as the surge of Omicron cases was very sudden. The Novena area is a known medical hub and so it makes sense that they locate the quarantine hotel for positive Omicron cases there so that resources are nearby to treat patients if required. I suspect that the hotel is overwhelmed as it is not a big one – it caters to medical tourists coming to S’pore for treatment. The official reason given to my son was that it was to help the roommates look after each other and to alert the operator if health conditions worsen.
His roommate is a slightly older man whose wife is also currently being quarantined elsewhere. He is a commodities trader and my son should be able to interact well with him as they have a common interest in finance. To cement the new friendship, I sent them 2 MacDonald Big Breakfast sets the next morning 🙂
Back to the 4 of us – My wife, younger son, domestic helper and me. Our adventure continued into Christmas day late morning as the ambulance van took us to our designated facility hotel which was just a short drive from our home. Thankfully, there was only a short queue at the hotel drop off point.
We had requested separate individual rooms for the 4 of us as we do not want to infect each other if one of us got it from my older son. Also, it seems like we do not have to foot the cost of the quarantine stay as it is an enforced order for household members even though our ART/PCR test results were negative.
We were pleasantly surprised that 3 of us were given suite rooms on the 19th floor with a wonderful view. Our helper had a normal room on the 4th floor though. We tried to encourage ourselves by saying that this is a bonus staycation holiday. This will be a quiet me-time for each of us to reflect and do our own thing, thanks to the government and taxpayers 😉 The younger son has his medical exams coming up in Jan so this is a perfect environment for him to study. My wife has a full-time job to work on and also just rented some gym equipment for her room.
Me? I will try to chill and prepare for my new Fintech course that starts in Jan. This time it is much better than my first 14 nights quarantine stay in Sep 2020. It is just that the timing is super bad, heading into Christmas and the New Year period. We will probably be talking about this episode in our lives for years to come.
Where are we now on the Covid journey? Omicron has upended everything within the last few weeks and we have not reached the peak of this cycle yet. Even if Omicron is 7 times more contagious, the after-effects data so far suggest that it is mild. We are now suspecting that my older son caught it in the VTL flight back to S’pore. He had a negative certified ART test just before boarding the plane and prior to that, he also had 2 negative PCR tests during his Italy/France trip. That means that Omicron is highly contagious.
I am an eternal optimist and I think that this is an important turning point. Omicron might be the silver bullet we need to end this pandemic/endemic. Even though there is ample data to support the use of the vaccines, many still refuse to take them. Can this be the solution for them to get natural immunity? It is a tough way to get protection from the virus but for the die-hard anti-vaxxers, it is nature’s way of handing out tough love.
The way Omicron is rapidly spreading throughout the world could be Mother Gaia’s way of getting us out of this nightmare as the global vaccination rollout after 1 year is still too slow. As long as a vast majority remains unvaccinated, more new variants will develop. We had Delta, Lambda and Omicron in 2021. How many more are coming or will Omicron be the silver bullet that ends the nightmare?
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