Coronavirus: Singapore has 6 more infections, 4 human-to-human transmissions

New locally transmitted infections include two people who had not travelled to mainland China, but worked at a shop catering to Chinese tourists

An Indonesian domestic worker is also among the new infections

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A man wears a protective mask in Singapore. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:00pm, 4 Feb 2020Updated: 2:58pm, 25 Feb 2020

Singapore on Tuesday reported six more infections of the deadly coronavirus, four of them involving locally transmitted human-to-human cases, as new examples of people being infected without having travelled to China emerged across the region.

This brings the number of reported cases to 24 in the city state.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said the new cases did not show “widespread community transmission”, citing how the health ministry was able to identify all the contacts involved, including the source of the virus.

“When you have cases popping up in different parts of Singapore, different clusters occurring, and you may not be able to determine the source of these clusters... then you have a widespread transmission,” he said, adding that if that happened, Singapore would up its level of Disease Outbreak Response System Condition from the current yellow to orange.

But he warned that despite Singapore’s best efforts, the country could still see “extensive community spread” of the virus that has infected more than 20,000 people and killed more than 400 people, the vast majority of them on mainland China.

Singapore’s 19th case was a 28-year-old resident of the city-state who had not travelled to mainland China, according to the health ministry, but who worked in a health shop that catered primarily to Chinese tourists. She had gone to the Tan Tock Seng emergency department on January 30, but was discharged after she tested negative for pneumonia. She went to Singapore General Hospital on February 3 and was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Her colleague, a 48-year-old Singapore resident who also had not travelled to mainland China, was the 20th case.

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