The Gadgets You Need For Phase 2

One of my biggest motivators for writing this piece is the resurgence in family members forwarding me fake news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. In Singapore, like many other countries, we implemented a “lockdown” of sorts and have seen a reduction of reported cases. However, I personally think the biggest benefit anyone can reap from the Circuit Breaker (CB) is routine. After two months of CB, we should be used to a certain kind of new normal.

The New Normal

By now, you should find it normal to wash your hands often, keep a safe distance in public spaces, and be confined to your home whenever possible.

Life needs to go on. We can’t stay in isolation forever (my introvert wife will beg to differ). We’re nonetheless affected financially, mentally, socially. A couple of weeks ago I read about someone who contracted Covid-19 while practising social distancing. He was surprised he contracted Covid-19 even though he followed the precautions advised by the Ministry of Health (MOH). Wash hands often, check. Wear face mask, check. Stay a safe distance of 1 meter away from other commuters, check. Work from home, check.

Reading that article, you can choose to go down one of two possible rabbit holes:

You have chosen Panic Hermit

Character Traits
Anxiety ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Cleanliness ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ + ⭐ Patience ⭐ Lack of sleep ⭐⭐⭐

Known for:

• Not leaving the house unless there is nothing left in the refrigerator
• Ordering GrabFood all the time even though Kopitiam is right below his/her block
• Spraying sanitizer at you if you sneeze or cough in public
• Using 1 bottle of hand sanitizer daily
• Reporting you on SGSecure if you take your mask off even for just 1 second

Be very, very afraid. The virus can creep up the food you ordered via Grab, or the letter from your mailbox. Or, it can be airborne (no, not enough evidence to prove this yet). Lock your doors, don’t let anyone in, or out. Clean the house twice every hour. From the ceiling to that grout. With bleach. Wear 2 masks at home, one over the other, and wear 4 masks when going out to do a grocery run.

You have chosen YOLO Sovereign

Character Traits
Anxiety ⭐ Cleanliness ⭐⭐ Sovereignty/Entitlement ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Risk of getting Covid-19 or transmitting the virus to you ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Known for:

• Not wearing masks
• Entering through the exit areas to avoid checking in via SafeEntry
• Ignoring social distancing by squeezing up right next to you in lines

If you wash your hands every minute and keep a safe distance in public, you might get Covid-19 anyway. So why make your life miserable by following all these new rules? Liberate yourself and be a lawless sovereign.

The key idea should be: minimizing risk

–Common Sense

I think being paranoid about everything is going to make your life super miserable or stressful (Panic Hermit), and being ignorant about potential danger is irresponsible to the people around you (YOLO Sovereign), especially your loved ones. So I’m going to introduce you to 2 common +2 uncommon gadgets/items that will greatly help you minimize the risk of infection during the Phase 2 re-opening.

1. Hand Sanitizers

We’re quite lucky that there are now many public-use hand sanitizers available. For the times those are not available, I highly recommend having these mini hand sanitizer bottles attached to your bag for easy use. You can easily refill these via a bigger hand sanitizer bottle at home that has the push pump.

I found these cute ones for the wife and me from Shopee for only S$2+ (inclusive of delivery fee). We filled them with the free hand sanitizer we got from the earlier handout provided by Temasek Foundation. Trust me, they are super duper cute! Or I guess you can stick with the plain-looking ones from Guardian, Watsons, or Miniso.

Damage to wallet: ? (~S$2)

Check out these cartoon hand sanitizer mini bottles on Shopee, they only cost $1.39! Delivery fee comes in at $1 so buy a few to make it worthwhile.

2. (Reusable) Face Masks

For those of you fabulous people who claimed your free 30-washes cloth reusable masks (4 masks in total) and are still WFH, you’re probably fine. But if you’re commuting daily, you should either have some surgical masks as a backup or get these cool-looking reusable masks. Most of them are 3 ply, or 2 ply with a slot for a surgical mask to increase their effectiveness. Add some colour? to these dull days.

3. Screen Cleaner

I am not entirely sure about this one, especially when I already have the UVC sterilizer (check gadget No.4). My sweaty palms usually make my mobile device(s) quite oily so I often wipe my screen with a microfibre cloth. But screen cleaners like these have anti-microbial sprays that can also help you sanitize your screens when you’re on the go. They are relatively inexpensive and the cool thing is that these are now sold as a 2-in-1 item, the microfibre cloth is lined over the bottle so you can easily use it to wipe the screen after spraying the screen cleaner. No more digging up your microfibre cloth from the pits of your bag.

Damage to wallet: ?? (S$7-$12.90)

I saw a really cool one sold by Uniq, called the MYST that costs S$12.9. The cheapest one I found that is of good quality is from Challenger for S$8, under the bargain section.

4. UVC Sterilizer

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Ultraviolet Light (UVC) has been known to be good at sterilizing surfaces. These products have been getting quite popular now, even branching out to these light wands you can carry with you to point at surfaces to sanitize them.

Read: Can you kill coronavirus with UV light? [BBC] 

My favourite iteration of this product category is the capsule-shaped pod, with some versions even offering a wireless charger built-in. I’m going to do a video review soon on the one I bought, the Uniq’s Lyfro Air Capsule. It’s got a very nice design and has a Qi wireless charger on the top, and has a decent capacity. I can easily fit my phone, watch, and earbuds all at the same time. There is a similarly sized one, the Energea Stera 360, but it is very chunky and bulky and takes up more space than I can spare on the top of my shoe cabinet.

This has been a life-changer for me, so much so that it has become my routine anytime I come back home, to just pop my phone and watch inside and let them be germ-free. I would say it’s equivalent to drying out your items in the hot sun (the UV light from the sun kills germs too), minus the heat.

Damage to wallet: ??? (S$40 ~ S$80)

A few options(from smallest capacity to biggest capacity):
– AmazingThing XL All In One UV Sterilization goes for S$69
– [NO Wireless Charging] Uniq’s Lyfro Capsule goes for S$44.10
– Uniq’s Lyfro Air Capsule goes for S$75
– Energea’s Stera 360 goes for S$83.90

Final Thoughts

We’re going through tough times now, some are facing even harder circumstances than others. I hope by compiling/curating this list I’m helping you to minimize the risk of contracting or transmitting the virus. Take a deep breath, smell the pandan leaves, and go get gadgets that will help you with being responsible while having your peace of mind!