I get a call almost every day now, which is ok, it breaks the monotony of the day and is somewhat amusing.

At one point i was getting Whatsapp’ed but now they just call. The calls are all from some named person from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The ask for my deets to be verified, my FIN, my DOB sometimes, my full name, the hotel I am in and the room I am in.

More particularly they are concerned about two vitals, am i alone and am i doing the self-checking three times a day via the HOMER app? Of course the answers are always yes.

There has been a slight change though since yesterday, I reached the 10 day plus mark and was scheduled for a swab test. I jokingly called it a nasal pap smear, while it isn’t quite as dignified I feel somewhat confident that it is almost as uncomfortable.

This image above gives you a sense of how far they go, the staff are very kind and gentle, or at least the ones i dealt with were. They must have been dying though, dressed in hazmat suits like they were at a crime scene and then further rigged up with masks, rubber gloves (several pairs) and then also wearing yellow plastic disposable aprons.

I saw about half a dozen other ‘inmates’ when I went to have the swab taken, it was the first time i had seen a person in the flesh in ten days. The hotel staff were doing the shepherding and they were super efficient at it though there was a lot of redundancy. Someone to collect me, someone to direct me, someone to operate the elevator, someone to take my name as i came out of the lift, someone to direct me where to sit, someone to take my name again and verify my identity, someone to queue me, someone to swab me and then someone to show me the way out and then the whole process from the elevator back to my room.

My room keycard apparently was a futile thing, because they deactivate the key cards on arrival at the hotel, so single use, that way if you duck out of your room, they know, because you cannot get back in!

So now, having had the swab test, the dialogue with the MoM is a little different, now it is, ok, wait for your test result, if it iss negative we let you go on the 14th day,

Just in case you were wondering about the swab they tuck down your nose, it felt like a bottlebrush, not like a cue tip, made my eyes super watery and though I didnt gag it was a weird experience. I am pretty sure it was the one on the far right!