Message from Our Staff: Living with COVID-19

By Dr Sini Mathew, Assistant Director, Health and Safety

It has been more than a year since COVID-19 came to our shores and the one constant finding is that the pandemic is a rapidly evolving situation. 

A lot of how we live, work, and play have changed significantly since the coronavirus entered our community.

During last year's two-month-long Circuit Breaker period to curb the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Most of us stayed and worked at home. We gradually reopened phase by phase and in December, we entered Phase 3.

At LKCMedicine, we follow the Government guidelines and regulations closely. We implemented measures to ensure minimal disruptions to our day-to-day work. With the daily changes of the COVID-19 situation, we remain strict with safe management measures for our staff and students.

Safe entry points with temperature screening stations greet everyone entering our buildings. Several venues such as lifts, lobbies and meeting rooms, were also marked to designate one metre safe distance among individuals.

As we moved from Phase 2 to 3 previously, we continue to remain cautious. For instance, even though we could accommodate eight students in the House Rooms, we maintained a cautious cap of five students.

In April this year, we saw an emergence of new clusters, just as we thought things were under control.

One of the clusters is at the School’s primary teaching hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital. LKCMedicine acted swiftly to keep everyone on campus safe and implemented several precautionary measures. Faculty and staff were told to work from home, with work on campus reduced to a need-to basis.

We stepped up cleaning and sanitising of common areas in the School.

COVID-19 has taught us many lessons. For one, we learn to live with the “new normal”.

The fight may not be over yet, but we are far stronger and better prepared at LKCMedicine, NTU and even as a nation to fight this battle and persevere. Hopefully with vaccinations as one of the weapons, we can dream of re-living the good old days, stepping out not having to worry if we have our hand sanitisers with us, and breathe the fresh air without having to wear a mask!