All dark in red-light district

All quiet here: A licensed brothel that was closed amid the coronavirus outbreak in the red light district of Geylang. — Reuters

SHORTLY after midnight yesterday, a young Asian sex worker dressed in a baggy cotton dress and slippers stepped out of a brothel in Singapore’s deserted red light district and rolled a wheelie bin to the side of the street.

Two hours earlier, Singapore’s vibrant Geylang neighbourhood was having a more typical night – clusters of men negotiating with chain-smoking pimps on the street as women in tight dresses tapped at phones inside neon-lit houses alongside.