Update: Manpower Ministry refutes DJ Jade Rasif’s ‘inaccurate’ maid story
A social media personality alleged yesterday that her family’s new maid arrived from Indonesia infected with COVID-19 but was allowed to leave quarantine early because officials believed she’d recovered.
Jade Rasif, a 27-year-old DJ with nearly 400,000 Instagram followers, vented about her “major covid scare” involving the unnamed domestic worker who was deemed to no longer be at risk of spreading COVID-19, only to be recalled for a test that came back positive.
“She’s chillin. She likes Singapore,” Rasif said yesterday of her maid’s arrival in a series of photos and videos. “Then a call comes in. Oh no, She has to go for a sudden COVID test,” “Result? It’s positive.”
Rasif did not say what date the maid arrived or was tested, but it would have been prior to the Manpower Ministry’s May 7 decision to bar entry to work pass holders such as domestic workers from at-risk nations such as Indonesia, Philippines, and Myanmar.
Rasif said in her post that the helper was required to quarantine for three weeks.
While Rasif has not responded to messages seeking comment, it raises questions about Singapore’s stringent containment measures. The city-state barred travel and returned to quasi-lockdown last week after a rise in locally transmitted cases.
Netizens responded to her story with dismay, saying it showed things were laxer than they have appeared.
“[I]f this is proven true, [I] guess now we know how the virus broke through,” Redditor Dittotan wrote in that site’s Singapore community. “Less so on transient contact at the airport, but literal cases walking amongst us.”
Health Ministry representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Rasif said online that her family, including her, had been tested and found not to have contracted the virus. Rasif was vaccinated in January as a health care volunteer.
According to the posts, the maid tested positive upon arrival in Singapore but was deemed “non infectious.” Rasif’s family was then told to pick up their maid since she had already “recovered” from the coronavirus.
Soon after, the family received a call about getting the maid tested for COVID-19. The result came back positive again, according to Rasif, which meant the family was at risk of infection although they’d never received a quarantine order from the authorities. The DJ also claimed that the police later questioned her for possibly breaking a quarantine order she never received.
“My [helper] was never reported in the news. Her friend has COVID and it was not reported as a community case either although her employers were all [quarantined]. So no you can’t find it on press releases but I [swear to god] it happened,” Rasif wrote.
“[To be honest] if I wasn’t vaccinated Singapore would be in even more trouble right now,” Rasif, who has been volunteering as a health care worker since May 2020, added.
Correction: According to Ms Rasif, she was told that her helper would require a three-week quarantine.
Other stories you should check out:
Did it hurt? DJ-turned-COVID frontliner Jade Rasif walks us through her vaccination
