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SINGAPORE: After his colleague contracted COVID-19, a man was ordered to go home and not report for work, instead traveling through Singapore for eight consecutive days, claiming that he was very bored at home.
For repeatedly violating his quarantine order, Soh Poh Tiong, 65, was jailed for 12 weeks on Tuesday (December 8).
He pleaded guilty to three counts under the Infectious Diseases Act, and five other counts were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Soh, a cleaner stationed at the Northpoint City Mall, reported for work on May 10 of this year.
His supervisor told him to go home and said Soh couldn’t report for work until further notice because a colleague had contracted COVID-19.
Instead of going home, Soh traveled through Singapore because he was bored. During the following days, Health Ministry officials tried to visit Soh to deliver a home quarantine order, but could not because he was not at home.
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They finally managed to comply with the order in Soh on May 13 requiring that he remain isolated at his residence until May 22, expressly informing him that he could not leave the house even to buy food.
Soh was told to use a mobile app to get her food or to ask her friends or family for help.
Soh acknowledged this and signed the order accordingly.
However, he deliberately violated the order by leaving his home every day from May 14 to 21, claiming that he was very bored at home. He would walk around the neighborhood or travel to various locations, spending most of his time during his quarantine period taking buses or trains.
According to his EZ-Link records, Soh spent between two hours and 10 hours each day on buses in that period. He also went to public offices like the Toa Payoh HDB Hub, interacting with staff members there to pay his bills, and he went to multiple bus interchanges, including those for Ang Mo Kio, Clementi, and Tampines.
Travel logs also show that he had taken several buses on May 16 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., traveling to Ang Mo Kio, Clementi, Harbourfront, Tampines and Lorong Chuan.
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Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Kee asked for at least 12 weeks in jail, saying Soh had left home for “extended periods of time” for eight consecutive days.
He spent most of this on public transportation or visiting public spaces, while potentially exposing “countless people to the risk of infection,” Kee said.
“The irresponsible actions of the defendants have undermined the efforts of others who had drastically reduced their social lives during this trial period to combat the spread of COVID-19,” he added.
“Despite being fully aware that it was a direct and close contact of a colleague who had tested positive for COVID-19, the defendant deliberately refused to comply with the terms of a home quarantine order that was delivered to him by the sole , inexplicable and completely irresponsible reason why I was just bored. “
However, the prosecutor acknowledged that Soh had worn a mask and was cooperative during the investigations, taking no steps to conceal his violations or post them on social media.
For each count of breaching a quarantine order, you could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S $ 10,000, or both.
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