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SINGAPORE: During his encounter with the COVID-19 virus, the migrant worker from Bangladesh has been in contact with his family on a daily basis.
But as far as they are concerned, he was ill with a fever and has been recovering ever since. The migrant worker, who asked that his name not be used, has not gone into detail for fear of worrying them even more.
“Bangladesh also has cases of the virus now, so they are afraid,” he told CNA. “It can cause tension in the family, so I don’t want to tell him.
“If I tell them, they will cry … I don’t feel tension for myself, I feel tension for my family, my country … I think about my family, not me, because I am safe in Singapore and the government here is helping to take care of me (to me) “.
It was a surprise to the migrant worker who had contracted the virus; after all, he had taken precautions to make sure he didn’t get COVID-19.
“My bedroom had no cases (then) … but there were (some) in other bedrooms,” said the migrant worker. “I thought if I went out and maybe if I was suddenly infected with the virus: ‘How?’. So I didn’t want to go out.”
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Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, the only time the migrant worker left the complex other than to work was to buy food at a supermarket before the “circuit breaker” measures were applied.
“I was working, then I would go back to my room, working, I would go back to my room and then, if I wanted to eat something, I would buy it in the store (in the bedroom),” he explained. “For months, I didn’t go out because what if I have the virus?”
So when the migrant worker started feeling feverish early last week, a growing concern arose within him.
“I was feeling sick and I saw that my roommate was also feeling sick … I couldn’t sleep that night,” he said.
The next morning, she went to buy drugs at the dorm store.
“I thought it could be the strain of not being able to sleep that night that caused my body to react like this,” he explained. “But the next day it was still like that, and I thought it was better to see the doctor.”
After taking his temperature, the doctor referred the migrant worker, who had a low fever, to the hospital.
“My temperature was about 37.7 (degrees Celsius), so I had a fever but it wasn’t high,” he said. “I was a little scared, but I was still thinking, maybe I’m fine.”
‘They were very careful’
After going through various checks, including an x-ray, a swab, and a blood test in the hospital, it was a long and anxious wait for the migrant worker as he waited for the test results.
“I waited a long time, maybe seven to eight hours,” he recalled. “I was stressed: ‘When would the results come? What would happen?'”
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Around midnight, the migrant worker was told he tested positive. He spent the next four nights in a hospital room with several other Indian and Bangladeshi workers.
“At first I was scared, but slowly I started to be fine,” he said. “I saw that the doctors really took good care of us, so after that I was fine … They were very attentive.”
The migrant worker, who is a devout Muslim, spent most of his time in the hospital praying and calling friends and family. “A lot of people called,” he said. “I was not alone.”
‘IT’S BETTER THAN MY ROOM’
The migrant worker was then transferred to the community isolation facility at the Singapore Expo, where he is currently located. Expo is being used as a community isolation center for the recovery of patients with COVID-19.
“I had friends staying at the Expo. So I called one of them and asked what the Expo is like,” he explained. “He told me what the Expo was like and he said it was good to come here.”
A community isolation center for COVID-19 patients at The Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria.
So far, he’s happy with how things are in this foster home.
“It’s comfortable. It’s not difficult here, it’s better than my room (in the bedroom). No big problem,” he said. “Now that my family sees that I’m fine, they don’t worry, we are happy.”
Because he was cautious with his interactions outside of work, the migrant worker believes that he could have contracted the virus in his workplace.
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“There are so many companies in my workplace,” he explained. “There are so many subcontractors … Workers come from all over Singapore.”
And while the migrant worker is generally optimistic, there is fear among the community given the spread of the virus, he said.
“If you see men from another room in a dorm go by ambulance, how does it feel? Of course, they would be scared,” he said. “A lot of people are scared. My friends call me and they are scared. I tell them not to panic and I tell them … not to worry.”
The migrant worker believes that he will be able to return to work once he has fully recovered from the virus.
His contract is not over, there are mouths to feed at home and a bank loan he took to pay a Bangladeshi agent to get to Singapore.
“Now I’m fine, everything is fine,” he said. “God can give (the virus) but God can heal me.”
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