However, what is less spoken about is the impact that the virus has on taxi drivers and private hire drivers. With number of confirmed cases increasing, and cases of local transmission being confirmed, less and less people are going to expose themselves to unnecessary interaction with strangers. Thus, people would choose to stay home and indoors, rather than travel out. And even if they travel out, most would most likely arrange for their own transportation, with people they know and trust.

A report on the government mouthpiece paper, The Straits Times, said that some Chinese nationals who are living in Singapore are buying masks to bring or send back to their hometowns in China, as apparently, there are shortages arising from the Wuhan virus there. The report, which came out about a week ago, seem more apt now that Singapore is facing 4 new cases where the virus was locally transmitted.

Most believe that the decision by landlords to evict tenants and why the government has issued warning against doing such things was because as Minister Josephine Teo said, there were still 30,000 PRCs work pass holders based in Singapore that has not returned back to Singapore ever since the virus broke out. So, any move to evict these high numbers would represent a huge problem of homelessness that the Government would not want to face.

It has finally happened. Using the recent Wuhan Coronavirus emergency as a convenient excuse, the Singapore Government has lifted the temporary exemption of internet platforms form the POFMA requirements. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and others were under this category of temporary exemption.

Many Singaporeans are now asking whether this figure is an overkill for the government, as the money used will obviously be out of the tax payers pockets. While it makes sense for the self-employed to be compensated for being quarantined, especially the taxi drivers, delivery riders or any others whose income depends on how they go out and carry out their jobs, does it make sense for the those who are salaried employees to be compensated? While it can be argued that their employers would lose working hours due to those quarantined, is the $100 a day figure too high?