Muhammad Nur Bin Wagiyoh is a Facilities Manager with ISS, a global leader in facility services and a long-time partner of SNEC’s Operations & Facility department. He has been attached to SNEC for the past six years, and is one of our many unseen heroes who has stepped up his game to combat COVID-19.

Muhammad and his team of 10 are responsible for the maintenance of the SNEC building: electrical, aircon, plumbing and building. “We are the first line of response if anything goes awry,” he explains. Since the onset of COVID-19 in Singapore, they have had to shoulder additional duties and work overtime, be it weekday or weekend.

One of these was implementing various safe-distancing measures: marking the floors and spacing out seats to guide patients to maintain a safe distance from one another, putting up signs and protective table dividers at staff pantries. Another was the setting up of thermal scanners to screen patients and visitors before they enter SNEC. And to protect patients and staff during this pandemic, they have worked to restrict entrances to the centre “so that there are only two entry and exit points”.

Muhammad has had to get used to the many aspects of the “new normal”, such as team meetings on Zoom, mask wearing, and the sanitising of hands after a job. In fact, he always reminds his team, “Every time you touch a surface, you sanitise.” In this respect, he shares that SNEC has added many sanitiser points at high-touch areas to reduce transmission of the coronavirus.

Muhammad and his team work mostly behind the scenes, which suits him just fine. “I’m the kind of person who likes to contribute without people noticing.” He is proud that they have shown initiative during this difficult time, proposing many ideas to achieve safe distancing. However, he admits it has been a challenge getting some patients and visitors to adhere to these protocols. “I hope they can understand the importance of such measures and be cooperative, as we want to keep them safe.”

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