MOM apologises to Jade Rasif, retracts claim that Covid-19 scare involving her maid was inaccurate

• Ms Jade Rasif recounted on Instagram how her domestic worker was sent home from quarantine early, having recovered from Covid-19 before
• The worker later tested positive for Covid-19 and was placed on quarantine  
• MOM had initially said her account of the incident was inaccurate
• The ministry has since amended its reply to her on the incident and removed portions that were inaccurate 
• It also acknowledged that its officers could have handled a call with Ms Rasif in a “more tactful” manner
   

SINGAPORE — Five days after the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) disputed claims made by social media personality Jade Rasif about a Covid-19 scare involving her migrant domestic worker, the ministry has retracted its claim that her account of what happened was inaccurate.

MOM said in a Facebook post on Saturday (May 22) that it had amended its earlier statement on May 17 regarding the incident by removing two paragraphs. 

One of the paragraphs that was removed refuted Ms Rasif’s claim that she was investigated for a breach of quarantine. 

MOM said on Saturday that the police have reached out to Ms Rasif to clarify the purpose of their calls and that she was not being investigated for a breach of quarantine. 

The other paragraph that was removed was a claim by MOM that it had reached out to the family after it received an email from them on a complaint made against the ambulance driver who had taken the worker away. 

The ministry said on Saturday that this “matter is being followed up on” and it will continue to “review, improve and tighten processes”.

“We note that the use of the word 'inaccurate' and one of the points in our May 17 Facebook post could have portrayed Ms Rasif to be providing an inaccurate account on the quarantine order investigation.” 

It also apologised to Ms Rasif after she had told the ministry that the incident had  “affected her negatively”. 

WHAT HAPPENED 

Last week, Ms Rasif had posted on Instagram — where she has more than 404,000 followers — saying that three to four days into her domestic worker's quarantine, she was informed that she could pick up the worker.  

When she asked whether the worker should continue with her quarantine, Ms Rasif said she was told by a person over the phone that there was no need for that because the worker had recovered from a previous coronavirus infection.

However, two weeks later, she received another call telling her that the worker needed to undergo a Covid-19 test. When that test came back positive, an ambulance picked up the worker to take her to a quarantine facility.

Ms Rasif said she was told that she herself would not need to quarantine and she was not served a stay-home notice.

However, she said that she was then investigated by the police for “violating a quarantine order” despite not having received one.

MOM responded to Ms Rasif’s original claims in a Facebook post on Monday explaining that the domestic worker was sent home because she had recovered from Covid-19 before, but given the spike in cases recently, she was sent for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as a precaution. 

Her PCR test came back positive as she was shedding dead viral fragments from an old infection, it added. 

The ministry then refuted claims made by Ms Rasif on how events unfolded. 

After that, Ms Rasif went on Instagram on Thursday to share several recordings and screenshots of what appeared to be conversations with MOM's staff members.

In its latest statement, the ministry acknowledged that its officers “could have done better” and been “more tactful” in addressing Ms Rasif’s questions on Tuesday. 

“We assured her that we will improve on this aspect of communicating with our customers.”