Hard work to meet higher hygiene standards but our duty to beat Covid-19: Cleaners, stallowners

SINGAPORE — To scrub away the Covid-19 scourge, municipal services, food outlets and cleaning contractors are upping their game to deep clean common areas, lifts and public toilets.

This is even as additional manpower remains scarce given the perennial tight labour conditions in the cleaning industry.

Cleaners say putting in the extra effort is part and parcel of tackling the coronavirus through the SG Clean movement, they told TODAY on Sunday (March 8).

“Not only do we have to support what the Government is asking for, we have to support ourselves too, because if the virus situation is bad, we are also affected,” said Mr Moniruzzaman Khairudin, a site manager of cleaning contractor LS 2 Services.

“To every cleaning worker, we will explain this Covid-19 situation to them, and they are also willing to do more,” he said.

At Tampines Central, a ward within the Tampines Group Representation Constituency (GRC), his company has doubled the number of shifts to wipe down the lifts and common areas with disinfectant, with an additional round of deep cleaning from afternoon to evening daily.

This is done with the addition of three more staff to his team of 47 cleaners previously, said Mr Moniruzzaman.

The ST 82 Coffee House, a coffee shop by the Badaling group within the same ward, is also raising the cleaning frequency of its public toilet and adopting a “two-cloth” cleaning process to wipe, then disinfect, tables — all with the same team of five. All stalls also provide hand sanitisers.

Badaling’s managing director Paul Kok said that food and beverage businesses like his are hard-pressed to hire additional manpower due to the perpetual labour crunch.

“We are always trying our best to recruit more cleaning staff. But it is hard to find manpower nowadays, and I don’t think it is just an F&B problem, other industries are affected too,” said Mr Kok.

SG CLEAN A WHOLE-OF-NATION EFFORT

The stepped up cleaning comes as Singapore launched the national SG Clean campaign last month to raise public hygiene standards and reshape social and personal hygiene norms.

Last week, a SG Clean taskforce comprising several government agencies was formed to take on this mission of changing cleanliness habits as the “first line of defence” to beat the disease, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong previously said.

Last month, the Tampines Round Market and Food Centre achieved the SG Clean standard — the first Housing and Development Board-owned food establishment to do so.

The Tampines Town Council now wants to do more, aiming for all 40 coffee shops to achieve the SG Clean certification by the end of March this year.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a visit to ST 82 Coffee House on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament of Tampines GRC Heng Swee Keat said that 30 coffee shops have already attained the certification.

With him was fellow MP Cheng Li Hui, the chairman of Tampines Town Council, who is leading the SG Clean effort in the constituency.

Both MPs also handed out care packs to the town council cleaners to thank them for their hard work in keeping public spaces clean and safe for residents. In all, 5,000 cleaners working in HDB towns will be given care packs by the People’s Action Party (PAP) Womens’ Wing and the PAP Community Foundation.

Said Ms Cheng: “The care packs come with a S$30 voucher for now. We will be adding on to the vouchers at the end of the month — for now we are talking about (an amount of) around S$100.”

With a recent spike in Covid-19 cases seen in the past two days, Singapore has to be prepared for the number of new cases to go up, said Mr Heng, who is also the Finance Minister.

“With the number of cases, inevitably there will be those who already have certain conditions and may pass on. So we have to be mentally prepared for that,” he said.

As Singapore raises its vigilance and preparedness for the long haul, he added that the SG Clean campaign should not stop even after the Covid-19 outbreak ends.

For now, the campaign to ratchet up public hygiene standards will boost confidence for Singaporeans amid the current outbreak, he said.

“When residents feel comfortable that there is a high standard of cleanliness and hygiene, they will come out and live life as normally as possible,” he added.

BUSINESS IMPACT AND VIRUS FEARS FUEL EFFORT

Public health as well as business concerns underscore this need for collective action, several food stall owners told TODAY.

Madam Mariah Jubri, 68, the stallowner of Malay food stall Warong Hajjah Mariah in Tampines, said business has fallen by more than 20 per cent since the Covid-19 outbreak started because people were afraid of eating out.

“I have been here for 30 years and so I know how different it is now (due to the virus outbreak). I am worried for everyone, but the best is still for us to do the hard cleaning work and restore confidence for customers to come back,” said Mdm Mariah in Mandarin.

Likewise, Mr Wong Pang Ho, 57, who runs a Western food stall and has also seen a 20 to 30 per cent fall in business takings, hopes customers will return soon.

A Tampines municipal cleaner for 11 years, Madam Salehah Mahat, 62, feels that the added workload is not a chore, but her duty as a resident in Tampines, too.

Asked if she was afraid she would accidentally catch the virus while working, Madam Salehah pulled out a hand sanitiser from her purse — a gift from her employer.

“No, not scared. I use this,” she said.