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Singaporean volunteers at care facility 12 hours a day, 7 days a week

Volunteer medic Rajasegaran Ramachandran takes care of Covid-19 patients at a community care facility at the Singapore Expo. PHOTO: MINDEF

Volunteer medic Rajasegaran Ramachandran, 36, has been looking after Covid-19 patients at a community care facility at the Singapore Expo since last week.

He volunteers for 12 hours a day, seven days a week. His duties include helping to take patients' vital signs and giving them their medication.

Most of the people infected with Covid-19 in Singapore, he said, are migrant workers. "They built our flats and our hospitals for us. As a Singaporean, it's time to pay them back, with my medical skills."

More than 37,000 people in Singapore have been infected with Covid-19 and many new cases are reported each day. The majority of them are foreign workers linked to dormitories.

Mr Rajasegaran, who works as a senior technician at Rolls-Royce subsidiary MTU Asia, will be volunteering until June 14 as part of his in-camp training as an operationally ready national serviceman.

Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms and lower risk factors are isolated in community care facilities.

Mr Rajasegaran, who is a trained underwater combat medic, tries to give them moral support.

He said: "I'm not only treating their illness. I'm also 'counselling' them. They are worried about when they will be cured, and when they will return to their dorms.

"They are thinking about their family, how long they are going to be here, and when they will start their jobs again. These are their main concerns."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 06, 2020, with the headline Singaporean volunteers at care facility 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Subscribe