PETALING JAYA: While we sit in our homes during the Movement Control Order (MCO), it may be easy to assume that other fellow Malaysians share the same comforts as us during this pandemic.
However, that couldn’t be more wrong especially for the Malaysians who work across the Causeway in Singapore.
Michelle, 27, who works as a waitress in a well-established Singapore club, is the sole breadwinner of her family.
She was on leave and meeting friends in Cyberjaya when Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) on March 16.
She immediately rushed back to Johor Baru to pack up and head back to Singapore for work to avoid having to go on unpaid leave.
“The traffic was so bad heading to Singapore, I decided to walk across the border,” she told theSun.
However, things took a difficult turn when her colleague tested positive for Covid-19.
“The Singapore Health Ministry informed me that I was in close contact with a Covid-19 patient, and they came over to my house, gave me a thermometer and told me to be in self-quarantine,” she said.
She claimed that the Singaporean Health Ministry called her thrice daily on video to watch her record her temperature, but fortunately, she displayed no symptoms.
Quarantined from March 31 to April 8, Singapore announced a “circuit breaker” to curb the pandemic and her workplace was closed.
That’s when she decided to return to Johor Baru.
“My friends had returned to JB earlier and they were quarantined at home. I didn’t mind that,” she said.
She was then given a letter by a doctor stating that she’s fit to travel and made her journey back yesterday.
“The Singaporean immigration officer in Woodlands asked me if I am sure I wanted to go back because the Malaysian government would quarantine me at a hotel. Because my friends were quarantined at home, I thought he was wrong and I made my journey home,” she added.
It was reported that Malaysians who return from Singapore must get tested for Covid-19 first, but Michelle claims that authorities on the Malaysian side were caught off guard.
“The Malaysian authorities only found out on Wednesday that Singapore would only perform tests for people with symptoms, that’s why they told me I must be quarantined at a hotel,” she claimed.
After being told to wait at a corner by Malaysian immigration, she was then taken by bus to a building called Maahad in Johor Baru for medical check-ups.
“I had to wait for 88 people to be checked before my turn and there was no social distancing practised there. When I told the doctor about my quarantine in Singapore, I was referred to another doctor who referred me to another doctor via phone,” she said.
She left Singapore at around 1pm and waited in Maahad until 11pm.
All this while, Michelle claimed, no food or drink was given to her.
“I got on the bus at 11pm. But the bus only moved at 12.30am while waiting for the police escort and we reached Millesime Hotel at 1am,” she said.
Noting the presence of personnel in Hazmat suits, their bags and hands were sanitised.
Someone even asked if food will be provided, but the hotel staff said they would get breakfast much later in the morning. “I voiced out that we didn’t get food since the afternoon when the staff said they will inform the health ministry. Nothing happened and I went to sleep,” she claimed.
“There’s a speaker in the hotel room where announcements are made. They informed us that they would give us breakfast at 9am.
“Fortunately, the hotel is nice and comfortable,” she added.
