The numbers are climbing in Singapore
Singapore just reported two more cases of coronavirus to bring the local total to 30 in the city-state of 5.6 million.
This is worrisome for a few reasons, as the Singapore dollar tells the story. One is that one of the new patients is a 41-year-old local resident with no recent travel history to China and no link with previous cases. He first developed a fever on Jan 28 and visited a clinic that day, he sought treatment at another clinic on Jan 30 and was eventually admitted to a hospital on Feb 2nd.
The second case is from a cluster of people who attended a private business meeting at Grand Hyatt Singapore from Jan 20 to 22. It included participants from Hubei and has led to several infections.
The lag on those cases shows how long it can take before cases are diagnosed and indicates that both patients were in the community for an extended period of time.
However what's also troublesome is that neighbouring Malaysia -- which receives far more Chinese visitors than Singapore -- still only has 14 confirmed cases. Statistically, there should be more. One of the ones revealed today was a 37-year-old Chinese tourist who arrived on Jan 25 from Wuhan in a group of five and had toured around major tourist sites in Kuala Lumpur. She visited a hospital on Feb 1 and was told to self-quarantine.
