Mindef - Adapting on the Go

SAF medical teams doing health checks on migrant workers.
Source: MINDEF

STANDING UP THE TASK FORCES

The SAF set up two more task forces to support the national fight against COVID-19. These were operationalised at the same time that the “Circuit Breaker” was activated on 7 April 2020. One was the JTF (A). It was put under the charge of Chief Guards Officer BG Seet Uei Lim on 6 April 2020.

JTF(A)'s mandate was to manage the COVID-19 outbreak in the PBDs. In two days, JTF(A) configured and deployed six Forward Assurance and Support Teams (FASTs), comprising SAF, Home Team and MOM officers, and the remaining 37 teams were fully deployed within the next two weeks. Each dormitory was served by a dedicated FAST. These teams worked with limited resources to implement SMM and provide medical care, including medical manpower, and testing and laboratory resources.

We saw that this was a crisis of fear for our migrant workers: fear of infection, fear of losing livelihood, and fear that nobody cared. With these three fears in mind, we developed our corresponding lines of operations.

BG Seet Uei Lim
Commander JTF(A)

Officers on the ground quickly recognised that something had to be done about accommodation in the dormitories. There was no end to the quarantine in sight and the 300,000 dormitory residents were growing more uneasy and agitated with each passing day. JTF(A) had to work fast if it did not want an eruption of full-blown unrest in the dormitories. The FASTs worked round the clock not only to fight the virus but also to keep the peace in the dormitories.

(Every worker) had his own set of worries, be it job security, being away from family, or losing his freedom.

ME4 Sivakumar s/o Kanagasundaram
OIC Infrastructure Maintenance Section 507 Squadron
FAST personnel deployed at Kranji Lodge 1 Dormitory

The migrant workers were largely confined to their rooms. There was very strong cabin fever. So definitely there was resentment and restlessness. They just wanted to get out.

Koh Zhao Qiang
Manager, MOM
FAST personnel deployed at Kranji Lodge 1 Dormitory

FAST personnel working hand-in-hand with migrant workers, dormitory operators and healthcare workers to stem the tide of COVID-19 in the dormitories.
Photo Credit: LTC (RET) Chua Moh Tean Alex

JTF(A) TOUCHPOINTS

The other task force that was set up was the Emergency Housing Task Force (EHTF). Its commander, BG Chua Jin Kiat, Commander 9 Div and Chief Infantry Officer, was given orders to turn vacant SAF camps into accommodation for COVID-free migrant workers who were designated as essential workers. Singapore could not afford to have workers who maintained critical infrastructure and performed daily essential public services quarantined indefinitely. As the COVID-19 cases in the dormitories soared, it was only a matter of time before all migrant workers in the dormitories would get infected if they remained there.

Migrant workers being registered as they moved into temporary housing at SAF camps.
Source: MINDEF

Bedok Camp II converted into temporary housing for migrant workers in essential services.
Source: MINDEF

EHTF had to race against time to house the migrant workers in essential services outside the dormitories as speedily as possible. Over the next seven days, it assembled teams comprising commanders and trainers from ground units who had experience enlisting SAF recruits and processing National Servicemen (NSmen) for ICT. Jurong Camp II was ready to receive the first batch of 350 migrant workers within four days. Bedok Camp II also stood up in record time. Within a week of its formation, the EHTF had housed more than 1,700 workers in SAF camps.

Click HERE to view EHTF personnel in action!

SAF camps housed 17,000 migrant workers working in essential services. 7 SAF camps were repurposed as temporary housing.

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STANDING UP THE TASK FORCES