Businesses in Toa Payoh take a hit as clusters keep crowds away

The crowds are gone in Toa Payoh, leaving shopkeepers feeling the impact of several Covid-19 clusters emerging across the neighbourhood over the past few weeks.

The Ministry of Health has identified various locations with Covid-19 cases, with the biggest of the clusters - 254 cases - at the bus interchange in Toa Payoh Central.

The other clusters are the market and hawker centre at Block 210 Toa Payoh Lorong 8, the wholesale night vegetable market in Toa Payoh East Lorong 7, religious school Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah in the Toa Payoh North area, and Orient Goldsmiths and Jewellers in Toa Payoh Central.

The usually busy hawker centre in Lorong 8 was mostly empty when The Straits Times visited on Monday afternoon. Less than a quarter of the 80 stalls were in operation, with many hawkers having opted against doing business on the first day the place reopened after the premises had been closed for cleaning for three days.

The cleaning, initially scheduled for Friday, was brought forward to Sunday after Covid-19 cases were detected among stallholders and workers there.

A total of 41 cases linked to the hawker centre and market have been identified.

A hawker who declined to be identified said many of the other stall owners were reluctant to resume business as they were not expecting many customers to visit. She said she had opted to open as she still had to pay rental costs.

"Today is a really horrible day, there is no one here. During lunchtime, it is normally busy, but as you can see, it is empty now," she said, pointing to rows of unoccupied tables.

Another hawker said he would usually sell 50 bowls of fishball noodles but had less than half his usual takings that day.

Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Saktiandi Supaat, who oversees the area containing both the market and hawker centre in Lorong 8 and the wholesale night vegetable market in Lorong 7, has advised residents to avoid crowds and, when it is necessary to visit shops, to make their visits brief.

"We are also encouraging our residents to perform home tests on themselves using ART (antigen rapid test) kits," he added.

Businesses around the market were similarly affected by the cluster and the closure at the weekend. A supervisor at Kelly Jie Seafood restaurant, who gave his name as Mr Jason, said that it was slim pickings for the eatery as well.

Speaking in Mandarin, the 60-year-old said: "We have had no customers today, just a couple of people who came by to take away their lunch. On weekends, we usually take only reservations, but less than half the tables were occupied - by residents staying nearby who could not go to the hawker centre as it was closed."

Over at the bus interchange in Toa Payoh Central, the usual lunchtime crowd was absent. Popular food and beverage outlets such as Toast Box, Burger King and McDonald's had about half their usual number of customers.

A service staff member at the Toast Box outlet, Mr Ng Yong Sun, 69, said news of the cluster at the interchange resulted in a massive drop in the number of customers.

"On Fridays and weekends, business is generally better, but it still won't be full like it was before the cluster," he said.

Ms Easwar Utamrao Soorin, 29, a sales assistant at the Fashion One clothing shop at the interchange, reported a similar scenario. She said: "At 9am when I opened the shop, there was no one at all. Some people came only after lunch."

The cluster was reported on Aug 26, when proactive testing by public transport operators picked up 36 cases linked to various bus interchanges.

According to Transport Minister S. Iswaran, less than 10 per cent of the 9,500 public bus drivers in Singapore are affected by the outbreak at the interchanges.

Even though he noted that the impact on bus services was limited, the lack of manpower has seen commuters facing longer waiting times for bus services.

"I usually wait 10 minutes for the bus, but now it has doubled to 20 minutes," said Mr Soh Hun Seng, 68. "I try to stay home as much as possible, but today I went out to meet my friend for lunch as I felt cooped up at home."

Housewife Sariyah Nacknay, 43, who was on the way home after picking up her Primary 3 daughter from school, said that the waiting time for the bus service they normally take was five minutes longer than usual.

Taking it in her stride, she said: "It doesn't matter to me because I don't like to rush, anyway. I can see the bus uncles are making an effort to go to work, drive us around, so I appreciate that."

Orient Goldsmiths and Jewellers was designated a cluster on Sept 4, and the number of cases linked to it grew to 17. The store reopened yesterday after having been closed for deep cleaning since Sept 3.

Neighbouring shops along the same stretch as the jeweller's also reported a downturn in business. Many shopkeepers could be seen sitting in their stores, customers nowhere to be found.

A few units down at Newhouse Furnishing, store owner Johnny Chan, 60, said that the dwindling footfall could sound the death knell for his business.

"My business is dying. Our business has dropped by 60 per cent - I don't have enough to pay rent. In fact, business has been dropping since around May or June.

"By the end of the year, if business doesn't improve, we can't hang on any longer and I will have to close down my shop. I can't even say I am sad because the Government has done what it can, and other businesses like the travel agencies and karaoke places have it worse than me," he said.

For some residents, the emergence of the clusters comes as no surprise.

"The people here don't care about Covid-19, especially the old people. They just sit around and mingle, they drink and chit-chat," said Mr Stanley Quek, 68, a transport driver for foreign workers.

Echoing his sentiments was a worker who gave her name as Madam Ho, who works in a bakery next to the closed Singapore Pools outlet at Block 111 in Toa Payoh Lorong 1.

The betting outlet was closed after an employee there tested positive for Covid-19 last Friday.

Members of the public could be seen closely reading a notice on the shutter informing them of the closure and advising them to patronise alternative outlets in the area.

Madam Ho, 60, said: "The queue next door (at Singapore Pools) has no safe distancing enforced and people don't wear their masks properly all the time."

She felt that another circuit breaker may be the way to go if the number of cases does not come down in the next few days.

Construction supervisor Kelvin Yeo, 62, said that the pandemic has just become a "part of life".

"The Covid-19 situation didn't really affect my daily life because I never liked to go to crowded places to begin with," he said.

"There are new clusters every day, and we cannot keep living in fear. We cannot cover all the bases completely to prevent the cases from happening or rising."