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FIRST, their trip was cancelled. Then, it was on again, but students were allowed to back out. No one did.
So 30 students from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Business School went to Hong Kong for seven days this month. They were accompanied by a lecturer and returned last Saturday.
Though Hong Kong is not listed as an affected country on the World Health Organisation website, it has 10 confirmed cases to date.
Six members from the Academic Affairs committee of the NUS Students Business Club had been planning for the trip since last November.
Committee director Sherlyn Loh, 20, a first-year student, said Hong Kong was chosen as it is a financial hub in the Asia-Pacific region.
On 1 May, about 21/2 weeks before the trip, Hong Kong had its first confirmed H1N1 case. The university decided to call off the trip.
The following week, Singapore downgraded from orange to yellow alert, and the trip got the go-ahead.
Miss Loh said she asked the students again if they wanted to go on the trip.
She said: 'I asked them to reconsider their decision, but no one backed out. I think we all trusted the university's judgment.'
Associate Professor Ang Swee Hoon, 48, who accompanied the students, said: 'Before we left, the situation in Hong Kong was considered mild. There was only one confirmed case. The new term starts in August,and there was no other time we could have gone. '
Before the trip, Miss Loh came up with a safety and crisis management plan, which included 'how to react to different scenarios and who to contact'.
She added: 'I also had a health and safety briefing for the students,' she said.
NUS gave thermometers to the students and they took their temperatures twice a day during the trip. N95 and three-ply masks were also supplied, but their use was left to the students' discretion.
Hand sanitisers were used before and after each meal, and cutlery was washed with hot tea before every meal.
A bus was chartered to ferry the students to minimise use of public transport.
Every morning, the tour company gave an update on the global H1N1 situation in a letter, which Miss Loh would read to the students.
Assoc Prof Ang recalled how the locals reacted to their temperature-taking during lunch. 'We were seated at the restaurant with thermometers in our mouths. A minute later, our thermometers started beeping at the same time,' she said. 'The other patrons were staring at us and even the waiter was asking us what we were doing.'
No one fell ill during the trip.
Jovita Chua, newsroom intern
This article was first published in The New Paper.
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