“Recovered migrant workers are a valuable resource who can help do many things” – Ho Ching

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife, Ho Ching, has suggested that COVID-positive migrant workers can help Singapore scale capacity once they are recovered and perform jobs on-site at ‘danger zones’ since they would have immunity to infection.

In a Facebook post published on Tuesday (19 May) morning, Mdm Ho said that recovered migrant workers can be a “valuable resource” and can help do jobs like swabbing or deep-cleaning dormitories if they are found to have immunity to COVID-19.

Mdm Ho, who also serves as chief executive of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, urged: “…think of this. If we have recovered migrant workers, they are a valuable resource who can help do many things.

“If we can test and confirm that they have the neutralising antibodies, then it means they have immunity, and thus can help undertake various tasks and jobs in the red zones.

“Of course, we will need to provide the requisite training. And we should also get the permissions from MOM, their employers and the worker themselves.

“These can be a very very impactful way to scale our covid healthcorp capacity, as more and more of our migrant workers recover. These jobs can range from swabbing other migrant workers, to helping to deep clean the dorms, etc.”

She added that the help of recovered migrant workers could exemplify “gotong royong” – a phrase that translates to “communal helping of one another” or “mutual aid”:

“With that, it becomes a form of self help, a gotong royong, not just among Singaporeans and non dorm residents, but also among our migrant workers. After all, at heart, we are all human beings.”

Read her post in full here: