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Oct 13, 2021
They are not just a case number
As of 14 October 2021, 207 persons have passed away from Covid-19.
On 14 October 2021 alone, 15 Singaporeans passed away from the virus, the highest daily death toll in Singapore since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 – on any given day in Singapore, 15 persons is about 25% of our nation's total daily death numbers.
In the first fourteen days of October alone, Singapore has recorded more than 100 deaths. The 100th Covid-19 death in Singapore was recorded on 1 October 2021. In less than two weeks, we have doubled that number.
207 deaths, 207 names, 207 faces, 207 broken families, and in the days to come, many more families will have to grieve the death of their loved ones.
Who were they and how did they look like? Other than their gender and age, why do we not know more about them?
207 is a statistic, a cold hard number. But for 207 broken families, their lives will never be made whole again. Most certainly to these families, they are not a case number.
Can we, as a nation, do more than just presenting them as numbers? Who were they? What are their names? What were their professional profiles? Where did they live? How did they live? How were their last days and moments like?
We, as a nation, are told to live with the virus, but we also need to learn to memorialise and celebrate the Covid deaths in our midst, lest the stigma against every Covid-19 deceased takes hold of our sensibilities.
This fear and stigma against Covid-19 have ironically turned us away from those who had unfortunately succumbed to that same virus that we are asked to live with.
In death, we strip them of their status as a patient and a person. They no longer have a name and an identity. They become a number, just a case number.
They are treated as a statistic, and it is simply not right.
Armies of professionals from the hospitals to the funeral parlours to the crematorium go about their work in hushed tones, lest the tightly sealed caskets the deceased rest in infect the living.
There is a collective amnesia of every life lost to Covid. This cannot be right.
As more vulnerable Singaporeans succumb to the virus, this is a time to reconsider our mindsets towards every Covid death in our midst. This is a time to restore dignity to every deceased lost to Covid-19. This is a time for greater empathy not less.
Lest we forget, they are our grandparents, parents, our brothers and sisters. They are our colleagues and co-workers. They are our friends and our fellow citizens.
Today, the families of Covid-19 grieve, often in silence and in solitude. We need to do better for them. We cannot leave them alone to face life alone. No one wants to contract the virus, and no one wants their loved ones to lose their life to this virus.
In a Covid-19 endemic Singapore, we must come together and learn to grieve together as a community. We must render support to those whose loved ones were lost to Covid.
In a Covid-19 endemic Singapore, we need to increase the number of people allowed to attend funerals and wakes.
In a Covid-19 endemic Singapore, the least we can do is to return their identities back to them.
They are victims of a pandemic, they are not taboo, and certainly not a contagion. The least we can do is to embrace them in life as well as in death.
Every one of them has a name and a face that we can all honour as a family, as a community and a nation.
Singapore has thus far lost 207 lives to Covid-19. Every death is one death too many.
Today, we are a grieving nation.
If you know someone who had lost their lives to Covid-19, please message us. We like to know their names and hear their stories and if you so allow us, we like to have your permission to remember, memorialise and celebrate their lives in written prose. Their stories deserve to be told, and their smiles, forever beautiful, shall remain etched in our hearts.
Death Kopitiam Singapore's tribute to Mdm Leong Yuet Meng, founder of Nam Seng Wanton Noodles
A MESSAGE FROM DEATH KOPITIAM SINGAPORE THIS FESTIVE SEASON
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are that of Death Kopitiam Singapore alone. We are not acting or speaking for any organisations or persons who may be for or against the death penalty. We hope to hear your views on this matter, and may we may find some form of consensus on this matter, however difficult it may be. Thank you.