JAKARTA - When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread outside of China, the World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended the use of masks only for sick people and people who were caring for patients. Based on developments, WHO then changed its policy by supporting the use of masks for everyone, without exception amid the massive spread of the virus from Wuhan.
On that basis, Singapore, which initially issued a rule that only sick people are required to wear masks, is now following WHO's appeal by requiring all citizens to wear masks when traveling on Tuesday, April 14.
Reported by Reuters, this rule has actually been planned in recent days because of the development of COVID-19. The authorities then obliged all citizens to wear masks in certain places, such as when using public transportation.
"Once you leave your house, you have to wear a mask when you go," said Lawrence Wong, a minister and head of the COVID-19 task force in Singapore.
Wong also said that this effort was taken because the government had seen the potential for undetected COVID-19 sufferers. In fact, many of them show no symptoms at all. For that, for those caught not wearing a mask in the required place, each person will be subject to a fine of 300 Singapore dollars, or the equivalent of Rp3,309,724 for the first offense and one thousand Singapore dollars (Rp. 11,039,240) for the second offense.
However, these rules do not apply to children with special needs, children under two years of age, as well as to individuals who perform strenuous outdoor sports. In order to enforce the rules, the Singapore government has distributed cloth masks to its citizens who live at home, while maintaining the availability of surgical masks for medical personnel who are fighting at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.
In fact, long before the regulation was made, the owner of the policy had closed schools. In addition, most of the offices were closed for a month, starting last week to curb the progress of COVID-19. What's more, now Singapore's positive number has increased by 334 cases as of Tuesday, mostly due to the spread of the outbreak in migrant workers' dormitories, with the number reaching 3,252.
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