TAKING STOCK AND REGAINING CONTROL

COL Tan co-chaired daily MOTF meetings with MOH's Director of Medical Services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, to direct the operations. At the beginning, the top priority was to address the lack of a comprehensive overview of the flow of COVID-19 patients. MOH needed an accurate and timely situation picture to make policy decisions. MOTF knew that it had to present the information in a way that was easy to understand and helpful to the decision makers.

The team worked hard to build the Operations Dashboard. This was something military personnel were familiar with and they quickly established a frame, pulled data from the hospitals, dormitories, and recovery and isolation facilities, and put the dashboard to work. The task force knew they were not going to get it right the first time. “Honestly, at first the margin of error was quite high. But we nailed it down before long,” COL Tan recalled. A mere week and a half after it was operationalised, the very first iteration of the dashboard received positive feedback from the Cabinet and Multi-Ministry Task Force. This dashboard would be an important step to regaining control of the COVID-19 situation in the migrant worker dormitories.