Singapore has been pretty lucky thus far as out of the seven confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus we’ve had, all of them are imported cases.

This means that all the patients are Chinese nationals from Wuhan and that they most likely contracted the disease back in China and not in Singapore.

In other words, there is currently no widespread community transmission in Singapore.

But it’s not the time to rest on our laurels yet, because some countries are already receiving its first case of domestic Wuhan transmission.

The scary part is that most seem to have contracted their disease from others who didn’t have any symptoms of the Wuhan virus (yet).

The virus spreads in droplets from coughs and sneezes and has an incubation period of up to 14 days (i.e. no symptoms for 14 days).

Taiwan, Japan & Germany Reported First Domestic Wuhan Virus Transmission

Taiwan has just reported its first case of domestic transmission of the new coronavirus.

The patient is a man in his 50s in central Taiwan who was infected by his wife after she returned from working in China and before she was diagnosed.

In total, there are eight confirmed cases of the virus and they have since advised their citizens against travelling to China unnecessarily.

Japan

Japan has also reported its first domestic case of Wuhan virus infection which is not linked to any recent travel in China.

The man in question is a bus driver in his 60s who ferried Chinese tourists and lives in Nara prefecture which borders Kyoto and Osaka.

He had driven two groups of tourists from Wuhan this month, during which he didn’t wear a surgical mask for the first trip (8-11 January).

On the second trip (12-16 January) he wore a mask and ferried 29 tourists.

The two groups of tourists have since returned to China and had no visible symptoms of pneumonia while they were on holiday in Japan.

According to the Health Ministry, he is currently in stable condition.

Germany

Four colleagues from the same company in southern Germany have fallen ill with the coronavirus after one of them was infected by another colleague from China.

The Chinese colleague had paid a visit to their workplace.

This is one of the first cases of person-to-person transmission outside China wherein the 33-year-old man was infected on 21 January following a training session with a Chinese colleague.

The three other patients are being isolated and observed at a clinic located in Munich.

Bavaria’s Health Minister Melanie Huml said, “A total of around 40 employees at the company have been identified as potential close contacts. As a precaution, the people concerned are to be tested on Wednesday.”

In total, as of time of writing, there are over 6000 people in the world who have been infected with the virus and over 130 deaths reported.

Around 19 regions and countries all over the world have been affected. Let’s all play our part and practice good personal hygiene.