Indonesia for the first time today conceded that COVID-19 is present within its borders today as new cases piled up elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Singapore. Thailand announced its 43rd case on the heels of its first fatality – one day after the patient died.
After weeks of claiming it was free of infections and shielded by prayer, Indonesia finally announced its first coronavirus cases today amid growing reports elsewhere involving patients who recently visited the archipelago. Two of Singapore’s latest cases visited Indonesia’s Batam city in the past two weeks. Malaysia’s 24th case and New Zealand’s first case, both announced Friday, had recently traveled there.
Sukhum Kanchanaphimai, Thai health ministry permsec, reported an additional case Monday morning in a 22-year-old colleague of a commercial driver who previously took ill after coming into contact with tourists. That comes one day after the announcement of the kingdom’s first fatality raised questions about its reporting transparency.
The man tested positive on Feb. 6. His illness went unreported by health officials in the ensuing four weeks, and duty free monopoly King Power shuttered the store where he worked without explanation or public warning. The government has suggested he suffered from dengue fever, an assertion a top disease specialist quickly challenged.
Also yesterday, the health ministry formally declared the outbreak a “dangerous communicable disease” under the 2015 Communicable Disease Act, granting the authorities the power to force people suspected of infection into quarantine. They will also be able to temporarily close any venue, which could come in handy to suppress growing anti-government student rallies.
After 1st COVID-19 death, King Power accused of ‘cover-up,’ failing to warn public
In Singapore, a new cluster of 11 infections has emerged, this time linked to a software company. Four citizens in Malaysia, including those who recently visited China and Milan, Italy, were found sick Sunday.
The World Health Organization on Friday raised the risk assessment for the COVID-19 outbreak to “very high” globally, based on the spread of the new coronavirus and countries’ capacity to respond, as global markets sank in response to disease anxiety hitting Wall Street. The first American died of COVID-19 on Sunday.
After a hard slide last week amid viral anxiety, markets across the region, from Singapore and Bangkok to Hong Kong and Seoul were rebounding slightly in Monday trading. Most major indices on the Stock Exchange of Thailand were set to close the day slightly up.
COVID-19 has infected more than 80,000 people in China and killed nearly 3,000 there.
Major COVID-19 updates:
- Thailand, the United States and Australia reported their first coronavirus deaths.
- The number of cases in Hong Kong and Singapore crested 100. New patients in Singapore involve at least three foreign nationals.
- New Zealand, Armenia, and Belarus were among nations reporting their first cases.
- The disease has spread to the Caribbean with the first case reported in the Dominican Republic.
- South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran, where bigger outbreaks outside of China have taken place, recorded at least 50 new deaths cumulatively during the weekend.
- Germany and France saw spikes in the number of cases with both countries hitting 130 infections each over the weekend.
From our Coconuts’ newsrooms in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong:
Singapore
- Singapore reported 10 new cases over the weekend, bringing the total tally to 106. A new minor outbreak involving 11 cases linked to software company WizLearn Technologies also emerged.
- New patients include a 20-year-old Malaysian man, a 54-year-old Japanese man as well as Burmese and Filipino domestic workers. Two of the newly infected had visited Indonesia’s Batam recently.
- Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry is investigating a Singaporean branch of the South Korean religious sect linked to the coronavirus outbreak there for allegedly using “deceptive recruitment methods” in the city-state.
- The ministry announced Friday evening that the “Shincheonji” church has been doing so through “front entities” and that new recruits are not allowed to inform anybody about their involvement.
- The ministry claimed that investigations had already begun before South Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak erupted, but they accelerated the probe after links between the disease and the religious sect emerged. Five South Koreans and two Singaporeans are assisting the ministry with investigations.
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Hong Kong
- Hong Kong reported 100 cases as of Monday morning after six new infections were announced over the weekend.
- More than 450 Hong Kongers still stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan will be airlifted home this week, a city official announced Sunday night.
Manila
- On Saturday, another Filipino worker in Singapore tested positive for COVID-19, just as the country’s health ministry confirmed that the first Filipino who contracted the virus had recovered and was discharged on Friday.
- Also on Saturday (Manila time), the U.S. postponed hosting of an ASEAN meeting slated for March 14 in Las Vegas which the Philippines had been invited to join.
- Three more Filipinos quarantined at New Clark City showed COVID-19 symptoms.
- Ten of the 80 Filipinos aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship who contracted the virus have recovered. Of the 10, eight have returned to the Philippines and are under strict monitoring
- Somehow, confirmed cases in the Philippines remain at three— all Chinese nationals from Wuhan – including one who died, and two who reportedly recovered and left the country. Overseas, 86 Filipinos have contracted the virus: 80 aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship (including 10 who recovered), three in the United Arab Emirates, two in Hong Kong, and two in Singapore.
Malaysia
- Malaysia reported four new cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 29.
- New cases involve an employee of the country’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, a Malaysian who recently traveled to China and another who was recently in Milan, Italy.
Indonesia
- Indonesia reports first cases today involving two Indonesians who had made contact with a Japanese national visiting the country, president Joko Widodo said.
- The patients are a 64-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter.
- Several new cases reported in Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore in the last four days have involved patients who recently traveled to Indonesia.
- Sixty-nine Indonesian crew members from the Diamond Princess are returning home, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry reportedly said yesterday.
Additional reporting Khyne Palumar, Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Todd Ruiz
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