A Facebook post which has been circulating since yesterday, June 11, contains an account of how "enforcing officers" entered a clinic and spoke rudely to patients and staff.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has clarified that the officers described in the post are not from NEA, in a Facebook post on June 12.

NEA also said that its officers enforce safe distancing measures at premises under NEA's care, such as at hawker centres and markets, and that members of the public should look out for the attire of enforcement officers and safe-distancing ambassadors, in order to identify them.

What did the post say?

The post describes how "NEA enforcing officers" entered a clinic and "started probing patients" to find out if they were at the clinic "for essential purposes".

Under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations, individuals may only leave their place of residence to obtain medical treatment if it is for suspected Covid-19 infection, as well as "medical treatment that is of a pressing nature".

According to the post, the "officers" emphasised that they were from NEA and had the right to question clinic staff and access confidential information on the patients of the clinic.

The "officers" also made "sarcastic remarks" and criticised the clinic's staff.

The post did not contain photos or videos, although a subsequent comments on the post claim that there were four persons "with tags", who said loudly that "we are from NEA".

You can see NEA's response to the original post here:

Top image via NEA and Channey Lim on Facebook