SGH nurse jailed 7 weeks for breaching stay-home notice to buy bubble tea, visit pregnant friend

SINGAPORE — After returning from Australia in March last year, a nurse from the Singapore General Hospital was ordered to stay home but left on at least seven occasions.

Nurul Afiqah Mohammed breached her 14-day stay-home notice by visiting her pregnant friend to help with the other woman’s wedding preparations, as well as buy bubble tea at a mall.

The 22-year-old eventually tested positive for Covid-19 but no evidence was found that she had spread the virus to anyone.

On Friday (Jan 22), Afiqah was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to three charges under the Infectious Diseases Act. Four other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that she left Singapore for Australia on holiday on March 14 last year, returning a week later.

She was served a stay-home notice from March 21 to April 4. She also told her mother that she was supposed to stay home for 14 days to “quarantine herself”.

However, two days after returning to Singapore, she took a bus to Causeway Point mall in Woodlands and bought bubble tea. She then took a GrabHitch ride to Nanyang Polytechnic to submit an application for further studies.

After handing in her documents, she took a private-hire vehicle back home. She was wearing a face mask at the time.

On the evening of April 2 last year, she again left home for more than five hours, taking a ride in a private-hire car to a block of flats in Punggol Field to visit her friend and help with her wedding preparations.

Afiqah’s friend, her cousin and parents were also home. None of them knew that she was on a stay-home notice.

Afiqah also did not wear a face mask during her visit. She returned the next day to help some more with the wedding preparations.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Lim told the court that the friend was pregnant at the time and would have advised Afiqah to stay home if the friend was aware of the stay-home notice.

During the period of her stay-home notice, both Afiqah and her mother did not have a fever or sore throat. But on April 12, Afiqah developed these symptoms and visited Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

She tested positive for Covid-19 and was hospitalised, before being discharged a week later and sent to a community care facility. 

She was discharged on May 17 after testing negative.

When asked if she had anything to say in mitigation, Afiqah said that she had “nothing to say”.

In a reply to TODAY'a queries, Ms Tan Yang Noi, chief human resource officer at SGH, said that Afiqah has since left her job at the hospital.

"SGH takes a serious view on this matter. All our staff are expected to uphold the highest level of professionalism and to fully abide by the rule of law and prevailing guidelines. Disciplinary action will be taken against any staff who breaches the law.”

For violating Covid-19 laws, Afiqah could have been jailed up to six months or fined up to S$10,000, or both.