The rise of Covid 19 in Asia now dominates media and water cooler conversations. Inclusvely hosts Petrina Kow and Laurindo Garcia share how they've been affected by Covid 19. Links to online resources for people living and working in Asia can be found at: http://be-inclusive.com/inclusively. The Inclusively podcast will return to regular programming on 12 March.

****TRANSCRIPT****
Laurindo Garcia 0:00
Welcome to Inclusively. My name is Laurindo Garcia

Petrina Kow 0:03
And I'm Petrina Kow. And we're coming to you from two different locations today. Very exciting

Laurindo Garcia 0:11
That's right this is the first time we're we are doing a transcontinental, trans-Pacific link up/recording this time. Yeah.

Petrina Kow 0:18
And you're you're sitting there with your you know, I'm guessing Uniqlo heat tech right with the Rockefeller Centre building in the in the background. And I'm here in my you know, clothes closet.

Laurindo Garcia 0:32
Well spotted, well spotted. Yes, yes, I am in the Big Apple. I am in New York City here for a work trip and speaking to you in the evening, and it's morning time Singapore, right.

Petrina Kow 0:44
Yeah. And we thought we'd check in with all of you. Thank you for all your comments and support for the podcast so far. We're working to bring you more stories. But today we thought we would check in a little bit on the situation with Covid 19 and just perhaps offer some support for all of you listening.

Laurindo Garcia 1:07
Exactly. I mean, if there's one thing we were a bit concerned about is if we would be continuing to talk about inclusive business practices. And were you risk being tone deaf to what's happening in the world. So we thought it would be wise for us to pause and take a moment to to share our own experiences, but also provide some encouragement to to our listeners as well. I actually left Singapore just as things were starting to heat up and they were and I guess how I've been affected by Covid 19 was, I was very concerned that he would have the quarantine measures internationally would risk me not being able to proceed with a big project that I've been working on preparations for the last six to nine months. Thankfully, that that hasn't happened yet. But of course, it brought up lots of question marks about how we would be able to do things if I wasn't able to travel. Travelling at this time is actually very surreal. Lots of people are hypersensitive about what's going on. When people cough the airport or on the plane, everybody's looking at you now. It's very, very strange.

Petrina Kow 2:14
Not a good time to sniff. Yeah, and I think, you know, I think on the ground, just, you know, I don't think anybody here has not had an experience of being affected by it somehow, I mean, from very, very small things to, you know, how you go to school even, right? I mean, everybody's going to be temperature checked every day and, you know, really increased vigilance with the hand washing and all the rest, which is great. I think we should all be adopting that anyway, you know, but, you know, down to more severe things like the, the charity that I'm on the board for Playeum; we're, we're down to almost zero visitors, you know. And businesses are really been affected and I guess, you know, for some of those businesses where it's a good time place - when it's crowded, they would really see and feel the effects the most. So restaurants, things like that. So, yeah, I mean, we do hope that things will clear. But I suppose that's what we're here to offer today with some of the tips or guidance or places that you can get help from, from the government and from other sort of business resources or people who are willing to still help in these times. So that lots of lovely stories going round of you know, chicken rice stalls, right, providing free meals to healthcare workers and things like that. So that's really, really nice.

Laurindo Garcia 3:36
We will definitely be posting some resources on the Inclusively website attached to this episode. And it will be a mixture of things like for example, government guide guidelines from the government, if you are a Singaporean company, that highlights procedures and precautions that you can put into place, but also in the in those links will also be explanation about the latest announcements from the budget that are designed to really help alleviate some of the financial stress that the companies are facing at the moment. So those types of links as well as other links from other independent sources and stories as well, just like you said there about how people are really use this as as an opportunity to bring people together when when times are tough.

Petrina Kow 4:27
Yeah. So we hope that it isn't too bad for you and that you can, I suppose, you know, as they say, keep calm, right? Wash your hands for 20 seconds, at least

Laurindo Garcia 4:36
Happy Birthday twice, right. And for now, we'll be just taking a hiatus for a couple of weeks while we see how the situation unfolds in Singapore. But all things being equal. We should be back on the air with our regular programming in early March. If you've got stories to share about how you've maintained inclusivity practices in the age of Covid 19, then we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line at be-inclusive.com/inclusively.

Petrina Kow 5:08
Yeah. So thank you so much for your support once again from the both of us. I'm Petrina Kow.

Laurindo Garcia 5:13
and I'm Laurindo Garcia.

Petrina Kow 5:15
Thank you and hope to see you soon.

Laurindo Garcia 5:16
Thanks for listening