MOM says social media personality Jade Rasif’s account of maid with Covid-19 inaccurate

• MOM said there were inaccuracies in the claims that social media personality Jade Rasif made regarding the early release of her domestic worker from quarantine
• The worker was assessed to have recovered from an old Covid-19 infection on arrival
• She was deemed safe to be discharged after a two-day Stay Home Notice
• Her PCR test later was positive because she was shedding dead viral fragments from the old infection

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Manpower has disputed several claims by social media personality Jade Rasif who said her migrant domestic worker was released from quarantine early, only to be found to be Covid-19 positive two weeks later.

The ministry said in a Facebook post on Monday (May 17) night that Ms Rasif’s account, which she put up on her Instagram account on Sunday, was "inaccurate" and that it wanted "to set out the facts".

For one thing, it said the domestic worker had tested positive on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) because she was shedding dead viral fragments from an old infection, and did not have an active Covid-19 infection, said MOM. 

Generally administered by taking a swab sample from the nose or throat, a PCR test is able to detect active Covid-19 infections.

WHAT MS RASIF SAID:

Ms Rasif said on Instagram, where she has more than 392,000 followers, that she had brought in a migrant domestic worker from Indonesia “a while back”, and that she had paid S$2,500 for the worker’s quarantine. 

However, Ms Rasif said she was told about three or four days later that she had 12 hours to pick up the domestic worker.

When she asked whether the domestic worker should continue with her quarantine, Ms Rasif said she was told by a person over the phone there was no need to as the domestic worker had recovered from Covid-19.

However, two weeks later, she received another call telling her that the domestic worker needed to undergo a Covid-19 test, which found the worker testing positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, Ms Rasif said she was told that she would not need to undergo any quarantine or stay-home notice herself.

As a precaution, Ms Rasif informed her friends and family that her domestic helper had tested positive for the coronavirus, and was in quarantine.

She also paid for each family member to undergo a voluntary Covid-19 test as no one had asked them to.

The tests later turned out to be negative.

Ms Rasif also claimed that she was given no number to call regarding the situation she and her family found themselves in, and that she was investigated by the police for “violating a quarantine order” despite not having received one.

WHAT MOM SAID:

The ministry said the domestic worker had arrived in Singapore on April 11 this year, and was administered on-arrival tests.  

She tested negative on the PCR and positive on serology tests, and was assessed to have recovered from an old infection and has antibodies against Covid-19, said MOM.

She was subsequently assessed to be safe and allowed to be discharged from her stay-home notice on April 13.  

However, on April 30, the Ministry of Health and MOM decided to test the woman again. 

“This is because of the worsening Covid-19 situation and new understanding of the infectiousness of variants of concern in the region,” said MOM.

“So although the migrant domestic worker has recovered from an old infection and at low risk of reinfection, we wanted to be sure.”

Responding to Ms Rasif’s worries about her domestic worker testing positive on the recent PCR test, MOM said there were indications that this was an old infection and the PCR test could be picking dead viral fragments from the old infection. 

“Further medical clinical assessment was needed to confirm that it was not a re-infection case,” it said.

On Ms Rasif’s point about why there was no case number for the domestic worker when she had tested PCR positive, MOM said while clinical assessments were ongoing, the domestic worker was not classified as a Covid-19 case. 

“From our experience, most recovered individuals who test positive on PCR do so because they are shedding dead viral fragments from an old infection and are not active Covid-19 infections,” said MOM. 

“Only the latter would require a case number. As the risk that the migrant domestic worker has a current infection remained low, members of the household (could) continue their daily activities.”

The ministry then addressed Ms Rasif’s claim that she was investigated for breaching quarantine by stating that as no quarantine orders had been issued in the first place, there could not have been any investigations.

Commenting on MOM’s Facebook post, Ms Rasif disagreed with the ministry and said she had received two calls from the police for breaching the quarantine order and that she was “happy to state them” for MOM’s internal investigation.

As to Ms Rasif’s claim that she could not contact anyone about her domestic worker’s situation, the post stated that MOM and MOH had tried reaching out to Ms Rasif on two occasions.

On May 5, ­­MOM emailed one of Ms Rasif’s family members to explain that their domestic worker needed further assessment to determine if she tested PCR positive because of an old infection or had a current infection. 

MOM said contact numbers were included in that email. 

The following day, MOM said it called the same family member to explain verbally the need for further tests on their domestic worker.

In her response to MOM, Ms Rasif wrote: “I have a letter that states the date you took her in. You called me on the 5th. This was days after she was picked up with no information or way to reach out to you.”

MOM said in its post that the domestic worker was assessed to be shedding dead viral fragments and recovered from an old Covid-19 infection on May 9 and was not currently infectious.

She was medically fit for discharge and returned to Ms Rasif’s employ. 

“This finding is consistent with the earlier determination of the migrant domestic as recovered fr­­­om an old infection when she first entered Singapore. The migrant domestic worker had not posed a risk to the employer’s family," the ministry added.