Singapore — Makansutra founder and advocate for all things hawker KF Seetoh posed a question about safe distancing when one is eating at a hawker centre.
Sharing a photo of two tables at a food centre he had visited, Mr Seetoh asked: “This is a very complex scholarly question…How many are allowed to sit here?”
“Observe the stickers and crosses, and count properly hor…then think!”, he added .his reflects how workplaces continue to resis flexiible work arrangements
The photo that Mr Seetoh shared in his Facebook post on Monday (Jan 24), shows two rectangular tables with a small gap between them. Effectively, the two tables formed one long table with three available seats at the far end – with three seats marked to indicate that no one should sit there – and five available seats at the other end.
“World class scholar and their underlings answer later. True story wan”, said Mr Seetoh.
Any guesses?Â
Vaccinated groups of up to five people per group have been dine at restaurants since Nov 22, 2021, without the need to prove they are of the same household.
From Nov 23 last year, this rule also applied hawker centres and coffee shops that were able to put in place the necessary checks.
The answer: Mr Seetoh said there were eight seats available there; three at one end, and five at the other, with the four seats in between them blocked out.
This would mean that one table would only have three and the other table would have the permitted five people, just that the two tables were in effect joined together.
Mr Seetoh added that Safe Distancing Officers who came by told the group that they were not allowed to sit there. Even though eight seats were available and the two tables were separated by blocked-off seats, a group was allo only to use five seats at the all-but-joined two tables.
Mr Seetoh gave the safe-distancing officers’ reasoning: BECAUSE..” THIS IS ONE TABLE, AS THERE IS NO ONE METRE BTWN THE TWO TABLES.’ (of cos their learned logic says the four blocked seats that separates them by one metre no count”.
