Wuhan virus outbreak: First infected Singaporean among three new cases, bringing tally to 16

SINGAPORE, Jan 31 — A 47-year-old Singaporean woman is among the latest batch of three people who have tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus, bringing the number of imported cases here to 16.

In a press release today, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said she was one of the Singaporeans who was evacuated from Wuhan on Thursday and arrived in Singapore on the same day.

The three new confirmed cases are all people with a recent travel history to Wuhan, the MOH added, as it pointed out that there is still no evidence of community spread in Singapore.

Background of new patients

The 14th patient is a 31-year-old male Chinese national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder. After a trip to Hubei, he arrived in Singapore from Wuhan on Jan 26. He is currently warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

The man reported that he was asymptomatic during his flight to Singapore. He subsequently developed symptoms on January 28. 

He sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic yesterday, and was conveyed by an ambulance to NCID, where he was immediately isolated.

Subsequent test results confirmed Wuhan coronavirus infection at about 11pm yesterday.

The Singaporean is the 15th case to be confirmed.

The 47-year-old was asymptomatic when she boarded the flight. 

Upon arrival at Changi Airport, she was found to have a fever during medical screening, and was conveyed to NCID. 

She tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus infection today at about 2pm. She is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

The 16th case is a 38-year-old male Chinese national who arrived in Singapore from Wuhan on January 22. 

He tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus infection today at about 2pm. 

He is currently warded in an isolation room at Singapore General Hospital.

MOH said it has initiated epidemiological investigations and contact tracing to identify individuals who had close contact with the cases.

In an update on the confirmed cases’ conditions, the MOH said that the three new cases are currently stable. 

As for the 13 previously announced cases, none is critically ill, the ministry said.

All of them remain in stable condition, and most are improving, it added.

Update on suspected cases

As of midday on Friday, 198 of the suspect cases have tested negative for the Wuhan coronavirus, and 16 have tested positive, with case number 15 and 16 being confirmed at about 2pm.

Test results for the remaining 35 cases are pending, MOH said.

Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing. Once identified, MOH will closely monitor all close contacts.

As a precautionary measure, these contacts will be quarantined for 14 days from their last exposure to the patient. In addition, all other identified contacts who have a low risk of being infected will be under active surveillance, and will be contacted daily to monitor their health status.

As of midday yesterday, MOH has identified 202 close contacts. Of the 162 who are still in Singapore, 156 have been contacted and are being quarantined or isolated.

Efforts are still ongoing to contact the remaining six close contacts.

MOH reiterated that it will continue to monitor the situation closely. 

“As medical practitioners are on the lookout for cases with pneumonia who have recently been in China, Singapore is likely to see more suspect cases that will need to be investigated for possible links to the Wuhan cluster,” it said. — TODAY