Maria Is Back At Work

Maria is back after a 6-month hiatus!

In May this year we had to tell Maria the most dreaded news again that we will have to stop her from coming to work in view of the spike in Covid cases. We had to protect ourselves as none of us was fully vaccinated at that time.  Since the lockdown in March last year, we had to stop Maria from coming into our house on three separate occasions, each lasting for several months. The longest hiatus is this time for a period of 6 months. 

Now that everyone in the house has been fully vaxxed including the girls, I made the decision to ask Maria to come back to work.  But there were conditions before she could step into our house.   The condo Management house rules is all part-time cleaners must provide proof of their digital vaccination certificate via My Sejahtera.  And I requested for a Covid test done in front of me using a Covid self-test kit.  I even gave Maria a fresh KN94 face mask and requested that she wore that instead of her own mask.  I was worried that Maria wore a recycled disposable face mask.  One time, Maria told me that she washed all her disposable masks and re-wore them.  

The entire procedure of the Covid self-test lasted 20 minutes - 5 minutes for collecting saliva and another 15 minutes for waiting for the result.  She did the test outside our unit. I had to watch the instructions via You Tube umpteen times to understand how to use this kit! 

Maria is also required to do a Covid self-test at her workplace where she works as a cleaner.  One of her duties is to clean the rooms of a Datuk and Datin.  The secretaries working for the Datuk and Datin would test her and other cleaners every two weeks. 

We're all so glad to have Maria back but the mil is still feeling a tad uncomfortable with having Maria around in the house.  I can't blame her as Maria was Covid positive 3 months ago.  

IMHO, I think we have to learn to live with the virus. According to WHO recently, the pandemic is far from over.   We will all have to mingle with people who were once Covid positive.  Three months ago, our neighborhood supermarket turned into a Covid cluster with almost all the staff infected. It was the same time that Maria was infected too as she stays at the same area, which was a red zone.  Residents are now going back to the supermarket, including myself.   We just have to take precautionary measures and remember to keep a physical distance, practise proper face mask wearing and sanitize our hands regularly.