[Photo: Mr Tay is staying in Tec de Monterrey which he considers too far from the epicentre of the flu outbreak to be dangerous.]
by Kimberly Spykerman
UNDERGRADUATE Joel Tay, 23, found himself faced with a tough choice when the Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak got students in his Mexican university scrambling for home.
Against his parents' wishes, he decided to stay - at the same time that some of the 10 Singapore undergraduates with him began catching the first flights home.
The third-year accountancy undergraduate from the Singapore Management University was on an exchange programme in Tec de Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico. Also on the exchange were four other SMU students and six from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Home quarantine for 3 back from Mexico
by Lee Hui Chieh & Kimberly Spykerman
THREE people who returned here from Mexico yesterday have been ordered to stay home for seven days, in case they had picked up the new flu strain there.
Two of them are Singaporeans, while the third person is a foreigner who stays here, the Health Ministry (MOH) said yesterday.
The trio are the first to be served the home quarantine order - Singapore's latest defence against the new Influenza A (H1N1) strain that is on the verge of causing a worldwide pandemic.
No thermometer = $5 fine at poly
by Jalelah Abu Baker , Amelia Tan and Jermyn Chow
STUDENTS at Republic Polytechnic risk paying a $5 fine if they do not bring their thermometers with them to campus.
They are to check their temperatures twice a day and declare their readings online, as part of stringent precautions set up at the school yesterday.
The Woodlands institution has also set up a thermal scanner and screening station at its main entrance to check all students and staff for fever and take their attendance.
Temperature-taking at govt offices
by Goh Chin Lian & Yen Feng
DAILY temperature-taking is back at government offices and elsewhere in Singapore as the country goes on 'orange' alert in taking precautions against the Influenza A (H1N1) virus.
The move, a requirement during the 2003 Sars crisis, is part of a contingency plan that has been implemented in a national effort to hold off the global flu pandemic.
Similar measures are being taken at the Meet-The-People Sessions of People's Action Party MPs.
Checks at SAF camps
ALL soldiers will have their temperatures checked daily at all military camps.
The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) put in place this measure after the country raised the flu alert status to one level shy of a pandemic.
In case of an outbreak, the military's medical centres islandwide have also set up their forward triage areas to isolate suspected H1N1 victims, said Defence Ministry spokesman Darius Lim.
