Coronavirus: Singapore confirms four new cases, including 6-month-old boy, taking tally to 28
- Three of the new cases are linked to a ‘cluster of local transmission’ while the fourth was a Chinese national who arrived from Wuhan last month
- Four others from same cluster had been in contact with a group of tourists who visited Singapore from Guangxi province in China, health ministry says
The four new cases bring Singapore’s total number of cases to 28. All four of the people diagnosed were being held in isolation.
Two of the new cases are father and son: a 45-year-old male and his six-month-old child, both of whom have no recent travel history to China. The man’s wife, who is the boy’s mother, was previously diagnosed as Singapore’s 19th case.
The other new case is a 40-year-old male with no recent travel history to China. He is the husband of a 32-year-old woman who was on Tuesday diagnosed with the coronavirus as Singapore’s 24th case.
The health ministry identified the three Singaporeans as part of a cluster of local transmission, including four other people, who authorities said came into contact with a group of 20 tourists visiting Singapore from the Chinese region of Guangxi last month.
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The ministry identified several locations visited by the tour group where the Singaporeans could have been infected, including a jewellery outlet, two restaurants, a duty-free outlet and a hotel.
The duty-free outlet, T Galleria by DFS, is located just off Orchard Rd in the heart of Singapore’s busy shopping district.
From these locations, the health ministry identified 142 potential contacts and one person was isolated for tests, which are pending. The rest were healthy.
Authorities have also conducted contact tracing with the crew and passengers on the tour group’s departing flight, which left Singapore on January 27. Five were still in Singapore and they have been quarantined, the ministry said.
The health ministry also released further information about the 22nd and 23rd confirmed cases: male Singaporeans aged 41 and 17 who were evacuated from Wuhan on January 30. They are now in isolation at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
There have been almost 25,000 cases of the coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV, mostly in mainland China. However, the virus has spread to at least 24 other countries. Of the 492 fatalities, 490 have been in mainland China – the other two were in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Singapore – one of the worst hit countries outside China in the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) – says no evidence has emerged of widespread community spread but it announced new precautionary measures on Tuesday, including halting group activities such as school assemblies.
Several firms in Singapore have suspended business and media events, including a big travel fair, but the Singapore Airshow is set to go ahead next week albeit on a smaller scale.
