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From Our Own Correspondent: Singapore’s hidden contagion

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25/04/2020 GMT

Singapore’s hidden contagion

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Singapore’s hidden contagion

Singapore sees a surge in Covid-19 cases among its migrant workers

Coronavirus spreads among Singapore’s hidden army of workers, living in cramped conditions; a visit to the exclusion zone near Chernobyl and Chile’s protestors in lockdown

Stories from Singapore, Belarus, Chile… and a remote region of Myanmar. 

Singapore’s strategy of testing, thorough contact tracing and strict stay-at-home quarantines was praised as a global gold standard. But since then, Singapore has seen a surge in coronavirus cases. In particular the virus has spread among the city state’s hidden army of migrant workers who live in cramped living conditions. The government has extended its partial lockdown by another month. Karishma Vaswani reports on where Singapore’s strategy went wrong.

It’s been more than three decades since the world’s worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. But although the reactor was in Ukraine – much of the radioactive fall-out was deposited in Belarus. The most toxic area is now a wilderness, and highly protected. No one lives there.  A few scientists work in two-week shifts to keep their radiation levels down. Monica Whitlock went to visit a research station deep in the forest.

Ever since the social unrest first flared up at the end of October in Chile’s capital Santiago, there have been protests, particularly in Plaza Italia – a big square - in the city centre. But now, because of the lockdown restrictions the demonstrators have disappeared – bar a brief stand off earlier this week. The city has fallen quiet – so much so that pumas have been sighted wandering the streets of the capital at night. Jane Chambers caught up with the protestors who remain housebound. 

In Myanmar, many newly-qualified teachers get posted to the most remote villages to start their careers .Myanmar has 135 ethnic groups, one of which is the Naga people. They live very isolated lives in the Naga Self-Administered Zone, which borders the furthest north-eastern corner of India. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent met a teacher in one of Myanmar’s least accessible settlements.

(Image: Migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh, queue to collect free masks and get their temperatures taken in Singapore. Credit: Reuters/Feline Lim)

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