A 6-month-old infant in Singapore has become one of the youngest victims infected with the Wuhan virus.
In total, Singapore now has 28 confirmed cases after 4 were confirmed today.
Here are the details.
4 New Wuhan Virus Cases in S’pore Today (5 Feb)
Out of the 4 new cases today, 3 of them were related to the cluster of transmissions announced yesterday.
Lest you’re not aware, a tour group from China had been to a shop (Yong Thai Hang) on 23 January 2020, which directly and indirectly led to 4 infections in Singapore announced yesterday.
Here are the details of the new infections announced today:
The first patient is a 40-year-old Singaporean who’s the husband of one of the infected people reported yesterday (the tour guide of the group). He had gone to NCID himself on 3 February 2020 after his wife became a suspect case. It’s unknown if he has been infected by his wife or through the tour group as he worked at Diamond Industries Jewellery Company, a place that the group visited as well. He had stayed in his home throughout, and while he did take public transport, MOH states that the risk of infection from transient contact, such as on public transport or in public places, is assessed to be low.
The next two patients are family members of the salesperson who was reported to be infected in the shop. They comprise her 45-year-old husband and her six-month-old boy. Both are now warded.
The last case is an imported case; she’s the daughter of the 13th patient and had arrived in Singapore from Wuhan on 21 January 2020. After her mother was tested positive, she had been isolated on the same day as her mother, and was confirmed to carry the virus yesterday at 8pm.
In other words, all cases were related; they’re all close contacts of people who carry the Wuhan virus.
As usual, MOH has initiated epidemiological investigations and contact tracing to identify individuals who had close contact with the cases.
Updates About the Tour Group
It’s now confirmed that two people in the tour group had carried the virus.
Throughout their stay in Singapore, they had been to Yong Thai Hang (24 Cavan Road), Diamond Industries Jewellery Company (Harbour Drive), Meeting You Restaurant (14 Hamilton Road), Royal Dragon Restaurant (2 Havelock Road), T Galleria by DFS (25 Scotts Road) and D’Resort @ Downtown East (1 Pasir Ris Close).
However, if you do the maths, you’d realise that it has been 14 days since group were in Singapore. MOH is reaching out to close contacts and is also conducting contact tracing for the passengers of the departing flight on 27 January 2020, as the tour group had come back to Singapore from Malaysia to take a flight at Changi Airport.
All the confirmed cases are stable, though one needs additional oxygen support but isn’t in ICU. One patient has been discharged as well.
Updates on Suspect Cases
MOH is working on contact tracing for the new confirmed cases. As of noon today, there were 379 close contacts, and 304 of them are still in Singapore. 299 of the close contacts have been contacted while MOH is still trying to contact the other 5.
Now you know why this contact tracing is so important; they managed to track down new infections and isolate them quickly.
In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website.
And also, if you’ve some extra time, do check out G.E.M’s video that pays tribute to the Wuhan virus warriors here.
Because sometimes, it’s easy for us to forget that these heroes are out there fighting the virus.
