Singapore — The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, took to social media earlier on Wednesday (Jan 29) to call out netizens who spread fake news meant to smear politically.
Mr Tan shared an image of a false post by a netizen. It read: “PAP is paying quarantined infectees $100 a day. Wuhan citizens on hearing that their province is to be locked down and suspecting themselves to be infected, fled to Singapore to disregard regulatory measures and bring the disease with them.”
Another part added: “NUS, NTU students are forcibly expelled from their hostels along with their belongings, with less than a day’s notice, in order to make way for them. Then those quarantined are paid $100 a day. How many of us Singaporeans can struggle to earn $100 a day?”
Photo: The post that Mr Tan shared and referred to as ‘falsehood’
In response to the fake post, Mr Tan wrote: “In times like this, games are still being played. Sadly this is one of many falsehoods that is being pushed out and circulated. They are increasing. Unfortunately, a number also actively share them, unwittingly … or not.”
He also called out those propagating politically-driven fake news and asked: “But this is not a political game that is unfolding is it?”
Mr Tan called for people to come together to deal with the Wuhan crisis and shared a number of links to trusted websites.
As an afterthought, he added: “In case anyone still wonder:
“It is regrettable that some people are circulating falsehoods on this. Quarantine allowance is not new. We did it for SARS too. It’s given to Singapore-based employers to cover their employees under quarantine and to self-employed Singaporeans/PRs under quarantine. It’s not given to tourists who are quarantined. Our whole point is to help Singaporeans.” /TISG
In times like this games are still being played. Sadly this is one of many falsehoods that is being pushed out and…
In the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak making its way out of Wuhan and Asia and into countries as far as Canada, people are taking drastic measures to avoid the virus–apparently, some more than most.
A Facebook post originally put up by one Lynne Carter on Tuesday (Jan 28) featured photos of a woman in Vancouver International Airport wearing a plastic water container on her head as a make-shift mask. It was captioned: “The latest anti-virus shields made with old water jugs”.
In the photos, which made its way around social media, the woman was clearly seen to be wearing a mask within the bottle, which she used as some sort of extra protection around her face. In the photo with her facing backwards, her ponytail is seen to be protruding out of a hole cut into the plastic bottle.
Photo: Facebook / Kyaw Thu Aung Ba
According to Mothership, a recent statement made by Peking University respiratory specialist Wang Guangfa, a “lack of eye protection” may have played a part in the woman’s decision. Photos of other people wearing the same kind of make-shift masks in other countries have been circulating on social media as well.
The Canadian Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) issued a statement that it does not encourage people to use such make-shift contraptions to protect themselves from the coronavirus. They have, however, advised people to observe proper hygiene and take sanitary precautions in order to reduce their chances of getting infected–including the frequent washing of hands and to avoid touching the eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as keeping a distance from people who are sick.
In another article, Monika Wu, president of the China Hubei Association of Vancouver, said that many of their 1,000-member team in the Lower Mainland have friends and family in the ground-zero zone of Wuhan.
Though she shared that, much to their relief, no one with relations to the Vancouver community has died in the outbreak, the association as a whole is still deeply concerned about the well-being of everyone’s families back in Wuhan. “None of us have been able sleep well for at least a week,” she said.
However, with the name “Wuhan” now automatically being linked with words such as “virus” and “outbreak,” Ms. Wu calls the generalized fear of people from Wuhan uncalled for. “Not everyone from Wuhan is infected. I’ve seen a few instances where people see us and automatically think we carry the virus, and that’s wholly unnecessary. It’s not helpful… Everyone’s interest is the same in this situation, so let’s be supportive of one another as we try to work our way out of this.” -/TISG
All three new cases of the Wuhan virus in Singapore are held in isolation at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. Photo: National Centre for Infectious Diseases/ YouTube screen grab
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Wednesday (Jan 29) three new cases in Singapore of the Wuhan virus, bringing the total Singapore Wuhan virus case count to 10. All are Chinese nationals from Wuhan.
The ministry said that this was “consistent with our assessment that more imported cases are expected from Hubei province” and added that “there is currently no evidence of community spread in Singapore”.
Coincidentally, all three cases are
The eighth and ninth Singapore Wuhan virus case
The eighth and ninth cases are a man and his wife who arrived in Singapore on Jan 19. Both reportedly showed no symptoms of the virus during the flight but began to experience them on Jan 24.
They had been staying with family members at their house in Lorong Lew Lian. On Monday (Jan 27), they took a taxi to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. They were classified as suspect cases and immediately placed in isolation rooms at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
After tests, a diagnosis of the Wuhan coronavirus infection was confirmed for both of them. They have been placed in quarantine at the NCID.
The tenth Singapore Wuhan virus case
The tenth confirmed case is another 56-year-old, man who arrived in Singapore on Jan 20 from Wuhan.
The man said he did not display any symptoms during his flight. However, after being labeled a suspect case at a health screening station at Marina South Pier, he was admitted and warded in an isolation room at the NCID on Tuesday (Jan 28).
Subsequent test results confirmed that he was infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. He had been working and living on board a cargo vessel.
According to MOH, the three new Singapore Wuhan virus cases are being monitored and are in stable condition.
It has initiated epidemiological investigations and contact tracing to identify any persons who had close contact with the cases before they were admitted to the hospital.
The first seven Singapore Wuhan virus case
The ministry said the first seven patients are in stable condition, and most of them have shown signs of improvement.
As of noon on Wednesday (Jan 29), it announced that there were 70 test results for suspected cases pending.
Contact tracing
The MOH is in the midst of contact tracing for the confirmed Singapore Wuhan virus cases.
When such a person is identified, it closely monitors the person’s health for any signs of symptoms of the virus and, as a necessary precaution, places that person under quarantine for 14 days from the last exposure to the infected person.
Individuals identified as having a low risk of being infected will be checked as well, with the ministry contacting them daily to collect data on their health status.
So far, as of noon on Wednesday (Jan 29), the MOH had identified a total of 144 close contacts to infected patients. Of the 144, only 115 are still in Singapore. The ministry has already made contact with 111 close contacts, and they are currently being quarantined or isolated.
It is still working towards finding and contacting the remaining four close contacts so that they can be monitored.
Travel ban in place
On Tuesday (Jan 28), the Government placed a travel restriction on visitors who have traveled to Hubei, where Wuhan is located, in the last two weeks or have passports issued in the province. Such persons are currently not allowed to enter Singapore.
The ban applies to all forms of travel, whether by land, sea, or air. Any passengers affected by the restriction who arrive in Singapore will be turned away, with their visas to the country suspended. They will then need to fly out of Singapore immediately.
Passengers who give inaccurate or false information about their travel history face penalties under theInfectious Diseases Act. Anyone convicted could face jail of up to six months and/or a fine of up to S$10,000. /TISG
Update as of 3.30pm on Jan 30: A spokesperson from NTUC Foodfare has responded to our queries and their full response can be found below.
Founder of Makansutra and entrepreneur-photojournalist KF Seetoh called out the Hawker Centre Unit of NTUC Foodfare Co-operative for issuing a mandate that the Old Airport Road Hawker Centre be closed on the first and second days of the Lunar New Year.
Sharing the circular distributed to the tenants of the hawker centre on social media, Seetoh asked in a Facebook post earlier today (Jan 29), “Insensitive. Why do you need to dictate and close the hawker centre for the holidays”.
Adding that hawker centres are essential services, Mr Seetoh said that there are non-chinese “who need and want to operate their stalls and serve all races on such days. And did you not consider the chinese hawkers who may want to sacrifice their 2 holidays to serve folks who may not celebrate CNY for one reason or another”.
He called the ability to choose whether or not to open their stall their prerogative and said that “it’s the freedom hawkers are accorded all these decades until these Management Agents (MA) came along, to reinvent the rules of the wheel”.
In the circular, the MA wrote that they were “pleased to inform” that the hawkers would not be required to submit the Tenant Request Form (TRF) for any price adjustments to the food they sell. However, they add that an increase “must not be more than 50 cents”.
To this, Mr Seetoh wrote: “do not dictate how much they should raise or not, their prices. It’s their market knowledge that would formulate their price changes. If your parent NTUC could arrange for them to get cheaper supplies, then you have a narrative, otherwise, stay out of their operation. The public will decide if they want to patronise them”.
Concluding his post asking the management to do better, Mr Seetoh added, “if you do not know the organic culture the people and the hawkers have of public hawker centres, you should have a BIG rethink on operations and how you want to serve the public”.
Asking the management to take their cue from the hawkers themselves, he said: “never treat it like a private food court operation. You must learn the difference”.
In speaking to TISG, Mr Seetoh emphasised that the management of hawker centres should deal with the hawkers differently: “Hawkers often tell me their situation and most simply accept whatever rules are thrown at them, not bearing in mind the bigger picture of the organic relationship their food culture has with the public- which is what managing hawker centres must always bear in mind”.
“Tenants and hawkers should have an independent association to represent their true needs and problems.. so the governors can react and govern based on this independent feedback”, he added.
Responding to queries from TISG, a spokesperson from NTUC Foodfare said: “
We thank Mr KF Seetoh for his feedback and would like to clarify that none of the hawker centres under our management are required to close during the Chinese New Year (CNY) period. This year, a number of stalls continued to operate across our centres on the first two days of CNY. There is no change in CNY operations practice since we took over the management of the centres 2 years ago.
However, the memo to hawkers could have been worded more clearly. It was meant to indicate that the management office would not be opened on CNY instead of the whole hawker centre. We apologise for the misunderstanding. We assure our hawkers that our teams at the centers are available to assist if they require clarification on matters relating to their operations.
Hawkers are empowered to decide their operating hours/days. To ensure a co-ordinated approach and minimize any inconvenience to customers, they just need to keep the operations team at the centre informed. Our stallholders are aware of this when our team conveyed the memo to them.
It is a market practice for hawkers to temporarily adjust their prices during the first 2 days of CNY due to higher operating costs (i.e. labour and raw materials). While Foodfare accepts this practice by our hawkers, we are also mindful to protect our customers from being overcharged.
Using the median price increase submitted by the hawkers for the previous year, the team has worked out a range of not more than $0.50 adjustment for beverages and not more than $1 for cooked food. This proposal is then discussed with all the respective Hawker Associations from each centre for mutual concurrence.
We have also built in consideration for our hawkers, should they need to increase beyond the recommended price increase, they can approach our Management with their proposal and rationale for consideration. We did not receive any request from our hawkers for further price increase.”
/TISG
Insensitive. Why do you need to dictate and close the hawker cte for the holidays. Hawker centres are essential…
A protester holds a placard during a demonstration against India's new citizenship law in Mumbai on December 26, 2019. - The wave of protests across the country have marked the biggest challenge to Narendra Modi's government since sweeping to power in the world's largest democracy in 2014. (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP)
Indian police have launched a sedition investigation against a primary school over a play that allegedly criticised a contentious citizenship law, officials said Wednesday.
There have been widespread street demonstrations against the law introduced by the Hindu-nationalist government that grants citizenship to religious groups from three neighbouring countries, but excludes Muslims.
Police said they were laying initial charges under the British colonial-era law against the principal and the management of the school in Bidar district in the southern state of Karnataka.
The probe came after a member of the youth wing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party filed a complaint against the school.
“We have started an investigation into the complaint by an activist who alleged that the play criticised and disrespected Modi,” Bidar police chief T. Sreedhara told AFP.
He added that the young student actors, aged between nine and 10 years old, were also being questioned, but would not be charged.
A school official told AFP they were being “unnecessarily” targeted by the government for expressing their views.
The play, which was performed on Sunday, was part of Shaheen Public School’s founding day celebrations.
A video of the five-minute play shared on social media showed students talking about how they feared the government would ask millions of Muslims to prove their nationality or be expelled from India.
The citizenship law, combined with a mooted national register of citizens, has stoked fears that India’s 200 million Muslims will be marginalised.
The play ended with a poem written by a Bollywood lyricist that has become a rallying point for hundreds of thousands of protesters across India.
The British-era sedition law enacted in 1860 carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Prosecutions are rare but it has frequently been used against critics of the government of the day.
Dozens of demonstrators have been charged with sedition in the ongoing protests.
On Tuesday, New Delhi police arrested a student activist on sedition charges after a video posted on social media allegedly showed him telling a crowd to “cut off” India’s northeast to force the government to roll back the law.
Last week, women protesters in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which is ruled by the BJP, were charged with sedition for holding a sit-in in the heart of its capital Lucknow.
India is now capable of making Pakistan “bite the dust” in less than 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars and last February came close to a fourth with tit-for-tat airstrikes sparked by an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir.
Modi is under pressure after weeks of ongoing protests against a new citizenship law, a slowing economy and the prospect of losing the latest in a string of state elections in New Delhi next month.
“Pakistan has already lost three wars. Our armed forces will not take more than 7-10 days to make Pakistan bite the dust,” Modi said in a speech to military personnel on Tuesday.
His comments follow last year’s incident when an Indian fighter jet was shot down — and the pilot captured — by Islamabad after a rare aerial engagement.
Wearing a maroon National Cadet Corps baseball cap at the event in the capital, Modi said India’s new prowess was thanks to what he called “youthful thinking”.
He said that Indian strikes against what New Delhi said were militants in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and inside Pakistan proper in 2016 and last year were evidence of this.
“This is ‘youthful thinking’. We carry out surgical strikes and take on terrorists in their homes,” Modi said.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars: in 1947, 1965 and 1971, as well as in 1999 during the so-called Kargil Conflict.
Modi said that Pakistan continues to wage a “proxy war” against India by backing militants in Indian-administered Kashmir where tens of thousands of people have died in recent decades.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since Independence from Britain in 1947. In August Modi’s government stripped Indian Kashmir of its partial autonomy.
The Dalai Lama - *christopher* - Flickr: dalailama1_20121014_4639
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to authorize sanctions against Chinese officials who interfere in the process of determining the Dalai Lama’s successor, raising pressure as the Tibetan spiritual leader approaches 85.
Under the legislation, Washington would freeze any US assets and ban travel to the United States of Chinese officials found to be involved in “identifying or installing” a government-approved Dalai Lama
A total of 392 lawmakers voted for the bill with 22, all of them Republicans plus one conservative independent, opposed.
The act still needs approval from the Senate, where Republican Marco Rubio has promised to lead efforts, before heading to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The law would also prohibit China from opening any further consulates in the United States until Washington can open a mission in Lhasa, the Himalayan territory’s tightly restricted capital.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime advocate for Tibet, said that the bill aims to encourage Beijing to resume dialogue with envoys of the Dalai Lama that broke off a decade ago.
“We are supporting the Tibetan people’s right to religious freedom and genuine autonomy by formally establishing a US policy that the Tibetan Buddhist community has the exclusive right to choose its religious leaders, including the 15th Dalai Lama,” Pelosi said.
It is the latest human rights bill passed in the US Congress, including an act in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters that angered China.
The 14th Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has won a global following through his good-humored discourses on peace and compassion, helping fuel interest in his push for greater Tibetan autonomy.
Beijing, while officially atheist, has signaled that it could try to stage-manage his succession — a ritualistic search in which monks look for clues in a young boy — with the presumed goal of grooming a pliant Dalai Lama.
While brushing aside any worries about his health, the Dalai Lama has said he is open to breaking tradition by choosing a successor before he dies, including potentially a girl, or even declaring the institution finished with him.
In 1995, Beijing selected its own Panchen Lama — another influential Tibetan Buddhist position — and detained a six-year-old identified for the role, whom rights groups described as the world’s youngest political prisoner.
Drone image of fake town - but no one knows if its related to Wuhan virus - Youtube Grab
A deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has infected thousands and spread around the world since emerging in China, has also spawned many false claims on social media.
Here’s a selection of misinformation debunked by AFP’s Fact Check service.
Sydney food not contaminated
In Australia, multiple Facebook posts shared hundreds of times claimed to show a list of foods and locations in Sydney which have been contaminated by the new coronavirus strain first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December.
One post, published on January 27, identified different types of rice, cookies and onion rings that allegedly contain traces of the virus. It also claimed that a “bureau of diseasology” had run tests and discovered the strain in several Sydney suburbs.
But the local health authority told AFP the locations listed posed no risk to visitors, and the foods named did not appear in the New South Wales food authority’s list of recalls and advisories.
Not Wuhan market
A video viewed more than 88,000 times on Facebook purported to show the market in Wuhan where the virus strain materialised. In reality, it was filmed at an Indonesian market.
The misleading post was published on an account in the Philippines on January 26, 2020. The footage showed bats, rats, snakes and an assortment of other animal meat products being sold at a bustling market.
However, a reverse image search using key frames extracted from the video led to another identical YouTube clip uploaded on July 20, 2019.
AFP was able to confirm the video was in fact captured at the Langowan market in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province.
Fake death projections
In Sri Lanka, a Facebook post shared thousands of times claimed doctors were projecting that the entire population of Wuhan — a city of 11 million people — would likely die of the novel coronavirus.
This is false; Chinese authorities have made no such projection.
There is currently no vaccine for the new strain of coronavirus. But the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention stated that most people will recover on their own.
The post also claimed the virus could be caught by eating the meat of the Chinese cobra but this has not yet been established.
Salt water can’t kill virus
Multiple posts on Weibo, Twitter and Facebook shared in January claimed top Chinese respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan had told people to rinse their mouths with salt water solution to prevent infection from a new virus outbreak.
But the claim is bogus; the expert’s team said saline would not “kill” the new virus and urged people not to believe or share medically-inaccurate online rumours.
The World Health Organization also told AFP there was no evidence that saline solution would protect against infection from the new coronavirus.
Conspiracy theories
Multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter alleged that the novel coronavirus was created on purpose — with theories including that it was manufactured by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The posts included patents to buffer their claim. But these were in fact patents registered in an effort to combat different strains of coronavirus, for example by developing vaccines.
Hospital not built in record time
A photo shared hundreds of times on Twitter and Facebook claimed to show a a new hospital in Wuhan that was built in just 16 hours especially for coronavirus patients.
In reality, it is a stock image of a random building that has circulated online since at least January 2019.
Although a new hospital is being built in Wuhan, AFP visited the construction site on January 27 and found it was still in the very early stages of development.
False alarm in France
In France, several social media posts have circulated with claims that people had been contaminated with the novel coronavirus in the departments of Val d’Oise, Savoie, Lot-et-Garonne and Pyrenees-Orientales.
These false reports were accompanied by images made to look like they were screenshots from several French news sources — including AFP.
However, these images were digitally manipulated. No cases have been confirmed in these departments.
See AFP’s Fact Check blog https://factcheck.afp.com
A part of Wuhan city before the outbreak of the virus - Wikipedia
China has enacted extraordinary measures to contain the spread of a new coronavirus that has killed more than 130 people, infected thousands and reached some 15 countries.
Here is a rundown of the steps taken so far in an unprecedented effort:
Millions under lockdown
More than 56 million people are subject to travel curbs in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected.
Public transport has been stopped in 18 cities there, with train stations shut, events cancelled and theatres, libraries and karaoke bars closed in some locations.
The epicentre of the outbreak is provincial capital Wuhan, the biggest city on lockdown, where the government has halted all travel out of the Yangtze River metropolis of 11 million.
Wuhan residents have been urged to stay home and authorities have restricted car traffic in the city centre.
Similar quarantine measures are being taken in nearby cities, with strict controls on weddings and funerals, temperature screenings for new arrivals, and the suspension of online taxi services.
The United States and Japan airlifted out some of their trapped nationals on Wednesday. Europeans plan a similar operation this week.
Travel restrictions
Beijing, Shanghai and other megacities have suspended the entry and departure of long-distance bus services.
At least 2,000 inter-province train services have been cancelled since Friday — most until February 8-9 but some for weeks.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that 3.3 million railway trips were expected to be made on Wednesday, down more than 70 percent year-on-year.
Chinese authorities have also asked citizens to delay international travel to stop the virus from spreading elsewhere overseas.
Authorities had already suspended both domestic and overseas Chinese group tours over the weekend.
Tourists from Hubei in Haikou, capital of the island province of Hainan, were told by the city government they had to spend 14 days in a hotel for centralised medical observation, and were forbidden to leave.
Holidays extended
Hundreds of millions of people criss-crossed the country last week for family reunions for the Lunar New Year holiday, in what is typically a joyous time of gatherings and public celebration.
Instead, public health officials asked China’s 1.4 billion citizens to confine themselves at home until all is clear.
Schools and universities across the country were ordered not to reopen until further notice on Tuesday, a day after the holiday break was extended to try and reduce the spread of the virus.
Wuhan and Beijing had earlier cancelled public events that usually attract hundreds of thousands of people to temples during the New Year holiday.
Attractions closed
Beijing’s Forbidden City, a sprawling imperial palace, was closed from Saturday.
Other famous landmarks including a section of the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs and Yinshan Pagoda also shut. Tibet’s Potala Palace was shut down on Monday.
Disneyland amusement parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong have closed down indefinitely.
Women’s Olympics football qualifiers scheduled for next week in Wuhan have been moved out of the country and will now be held in Sydney.
China’s film box-office earnings for Lunar New Year’s Eve on Friday were just one-tenth of last year as people shunned crowds.
US coffee chain Starbucks said it had shut all its stores in Hubei during the holiday break and more than half of its stores around the country.
Travel screenings
China has ordered sterilisation and ventilation at airports and bus stations, as well as inside planes and trains, while travellers are being screened for fever.
Temperature screening checkpoints have been set up in hundreds of Chinese railway stations, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Authorities have asked people to wash their hands regularly, avoid crowded places, get plenty of fresh air and wear protective face masks.
City authorities in Wuhan have gone further and made it mandatory to wear masks in public places. A similar order was issued in southern Guangdong province, which has 110 million people.
With people rushing to get masks at pharmacies and on popular websites, China’s industry and information technology ministry vowed to increase supply.
Two new hospitals
Authorities in Wuhan are rushing to build two field hospitals by next week to ease pressure on medical facilities in the city that are struggling to handle a growing caseload.
The first facility is expected to be operational by next Monday and will have a capacity of 1,000 beds spread over 25,000 square metres, according to state media.
The second is slated to open two days later. State media announced Wednesday that it would hold 1,600 beds, 300 more than earlier indicated.
The two new hospitals will be similar in size to the temporary facility built to tackle SARS in Beijing in 2003, when 650 people died from the disease in the mainland and Hong Kong.
Singapore — The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), in a statement released on Wednesday (Jan 29), has called on Singaporeans not to produce and spread fake news and rumours about the Wuhan virus outbreak.
Nearly 6,000 people are ill and 132 have died, according to statistics released by China’s National Health Commission on Tuesday (Jan 28). The virus has reached various other cities in China and other countries, including Thailand, South Korea, Japan, the United States, France, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore.
Officials have called for only the facts regarding the outbreak to be disseminated, as false news and rumours have abounded concerning the virus, especially on social media sites online as well as messaging apps such as WhatsApp.
The SDP joined the call for the public to refrain from propagating falsehoods about the Wuhan virus, adding in its statement that“alarming the public through such misinformation only harms our community and ourselves”.
The opposition party urged people to verify the sources of information before sharing posts, double-checking to see if these are from reliable sources before forwarding them to others. It says this can be done easily through quick searches online to verify the information.
The SDP also backed full cooperation with authorities during this time. “It is important that we do our utmost at this time to cooperate with the authorities to bring the situation under control and to minimise and even stop the virus from further spreading.”
The party also commended efforts the authorities have made in informing the public concerning confirmed cases of the virus as well as their contact histories. “It is important that the public continues to receive timely and detailed information on cases under surveillance. This will be an effective way to reduce rumours from proliferating.”
The SDP statement came a day after the Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed another two cases of the virus in the country, bringing the total to seven. With three confirmed cases within the last 24 hours, the MOH noted that the trend of infection among Chinese nationals from Hubei province in Singapore is accelerating, in line with the sharp increase in global infection rates. It said this presented a heightened risk to Singapore, although there was as yet no evidence that the virus had spread in the community.
From Wednesday (Jan 29), travellers who have passports issued in Hubei and those who have been to Hubei recently will not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore.
The authorities said on Tuesday that there are around 2,000 individuals in Singapore who have recently travelled to Hubei. From among them, those who are deemed to be at higher risk will be put into quarantine.
At present there are 75 people who are under quarantine, all of whom were in close contact with the first four individuals in the country who were confirmed to be positive for the Wuhan virus.
Quarantine, which falls under the Infectious Diseases Act, carries strict penalties when disobeyed. A fine of $10,000 and a six-month jail sentence can be meted out for first time offenders, with more stringent penalties for those who repeat the offence. -/TISG
