Three new Wuhan virus cases here, bringing total to 10
New cases are Chinese nationals; no evidence of community spread, says ministry
Three new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus infection have been confirmed here, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday, bringing the total number in the country to 10.
As in the previous cases, the new cases were all Chinese nationals from Wuhan, MOH said. All three are in stable condition.
"This is consistent with our assessment that more imported cases are expected from Hubei province. There is currently no evidence of community spread in Singapore," the ministry said in a press release yesterday.
The eighth and ninth cases are husband and wife, both 56 years old.
The couple arrived in Singapore on Jan 19 and stayed with their family at their home in Lorong Lew Lian in Upper Serangoon.
They were asymptomatic during the flight to Singapore and subsequently developed symptoms last Friday.
On Monday, they took a taxi to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and were classified as suspect cases.
Subsequent test results confirmed the 2019-nCoV virus infection on Tuesday for the woman and yesterday for the man.
They are warded in isolation rooms at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
The 10th confirmed case is a 56-year-old man who arrived in Singapore on Jan 20. He is also warded at the NCID.
Similar to the eighth and ninth case, the man - who worked and lived on board a cargo vessel - was asymptomatic during his flight here.
He developed symptoms on Jan 21 and was admitted to NCID on Tuesday after being identified as a suspect case at a health screening station at Marina South Pier. Test results confirmed the infection at about 2pm yesterday.
Contact tracing and epidemiological investigations have been initiated by MOH to identify close contacts with the cases.
It added that once identified, the ministry will closely monitor all close contacts.
MOH said test results for 70 suspected cases are pending as of noon yesterday.
In addition, the ministry has identified 144 close contacts of the suspected cases.
Of the 115 who are still in Singapore, 111 have been contacted and are being quarantined or isolated. They will be quarantined for 14 days from their last exposure to the patient.
Efforts are ongoing to contact the remaining four.
The seven previously announced confirmed cases are in stable condition, and most of them are improving, said MOH.
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