COVID-19 Update: S’pore checkpoints spot-testing; Malaysian paramedic tests positive

The coronavirus has infected more than 90,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 globally, mostly in China, with secondary outbreaks in South Korea, Iran, and Italy continuing to grow.

Singapore and Thailand have imposed new restrictions and measures for travelers who recently visited the other three virus-hit countries. They include swab tests that can be conducted on-the-spot at Singapore’s checkpoints with results available within hours. 

Malaysia reported seven new cases in a day including one involving a paramedic who attended to its 26th patient, while the Philippines partially lifted travel restrictions for South Korea citing low fatality rate in the latter country. 

Thailand’s health minister said that anyone returning from Japan, Germany, South Korea, China, Taiwan, France, Singapore, Italy and Iran would be forced to self-quarantine for two weeks.

More Hong Kongers are expected to return from Wuhan, China, this week. Indonesia is tracking down members of a local dance community who may have made contact with one of its first cases. 

Here are major updates from around the world in the last 24 hours:

• A Chinese doctor and colleague of a late COVID-19 whistleblower hero physician in Wuhan, China, has died. 
• The death toll in the United States rose to nine yesterday, all in Washington state.
• Spain confirmed its first death.
• Chile, Argentina, and Ukraine reported their first cases. 
• The World Health Organization has warned of a health protective gear shortage.
• The number of cases in Japan hits 1,000. 
• Cases in Australia rose to 41, including an infected healthcare worker in Sydney.

Major updates from Coconuts newsrooms in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong:

Singapore

• Air New Zealand announced today that a passenger onboard a Singapore-Auckland flight tested positive for COVID-19.
• One of two cases reported in Singapore last night involved yet another patient linked to a software firm. 
• Singapore has reported 110 cases so far.
• Seven patients are in critical condition.
• Singapore has imposed new travel restrictions for foreign workers who have been to South Korea, Iran, and northern Italy in the last 14 days.
  • Starting at midnight, they will be required to obtain the Manpower Ministry’s approval before journeying to the city-state and self-quarantine two weeks upon arrival. 
  • Foreign workers arriving from said countries showing COVID-19 symptoms will undergo swab tests, which produce results within three to six hours. 
• Singapore will also ban entry to all travelers who have visited those virus-hit countries in the last 14 days, starting at midnight.
  • Japan has been excluded from Singapore’s expanded travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 outbreak as “the number of infected cases in Japan at this stage is still lower compared to the other countries,” National Development Minister Lawrence Wong told reporters last night. 

Malaysia

• Malaysia reported seven new cases yesterday, bringing the total number of known infections to 36. 
  • All of the new cases involve citizens linked to the 26th patient, who is reportedly an employee of sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional. 
    • One of them is a 40-year-old male paramedic who had attended to the 26th patient.
    • Some of the new patients have recent travel history to Australia and Egypt. 

Hong Kong

• Around 500 Hong Kongers are expected to be repatriated from Wuhan, China today and tomorrow, South China Morning Post reported. More than 3,000 will remain stuck in the city.
• The total number of known infections in Hong Kong still stands at 101, with 37 deemed to have recovered. 

Thailand

• The owner of a local business busted for selling used face masks has confessed to selling 200,000 pieces before the operation was shut down.
• The prime minister will hold a meeting today to discuss thousands of illegal Thai workers hoping to return home from South Korea. 
• Panic-shopping has hit Greater Bangkok with supermarket shelves wiped clean of supplies including instant noodles and rice. 

Manila

• The Philippine health department has partially lifted travel restrictions to South Korea after the latter reported “implementation of stringent infection control measures” and its low case fatality rate of 0.5%.
• Filipinos are allowed to travel to North Gyeongsang province (where most virus cases have been reported) providing that they sign a waiver understanding the risks involved.
• This comes just as the health department earlier yesterday said it tracked down eight  of the 26 Koreans who arrived from Daegu City in the country last week, shortly before Manila implemented a travel ban on North Gyeongsang province, where virus-hit Daegu City is located. They will be placed under quarantine in several hotels in Cebu. 
• Seventeen of the South Koreans who had arrived in the Philippines recently have gone back to South Korea, while one was found in Pampanga and is being monitored by the health department’s local office. None of them are showing flu-like symptoms so far.
• As of yesterday noon, the number of cases being monitored for the virus in the country is down to 25. While not a single Filipino has tested positive in the Philippines, 86 overseas Filipino workers have been infected, most of them aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.

Indonesia

• The mother and daughter confirmed with the COVID-19 infection are “getting better,” a health official said yesterday. 
• Indonesia is also tracking down members of a dance community who were in contact with one of the COVID-19 patients.
• President Joko Widodo announced that a new hospital will be built on an island near Singapore to treat COVID-19 patients. The date of completion was not set but the hospital is said to be located on Galang Island in Batam. 
• The total number of known infections in Indonesia remains at two.

Additional reporting Khyne Palumar, Vicky Wong. 

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