Singapore imposes 14-day stay-home notice on all travellers

The Singapore government is imposing a 14-day stay-home notice on all travellers and advising Singaporeans to defer all travel abroad, as it steps up measures to reduce the risk of community transmissions from imported coronavirus cases,

This comes as Singapore recorded the highest number of cases in a day on Wednesday - 47. Among them, 33 were imported, with Singapore residents, which includes Singaporeans and long-term residents, accounting for 30 of them.

Giving a breakdown at a press conference, Kenneth Mak, director of medical services at the Ministry of Health said 19 of them have recent travel history in Europe; six travelled to North America, and six to Asean. Only three of the imported cases are short-term travellers.

The mandatory 14-day stay home notice will be enforced from March 20 at 11.59pm.

As previously announced, short-term visitors with recent travel history to mainland China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Spain are not allowed to enter or transit in Singapore.

In addition, the government is now advising Singaporeans to defer all travel abroad with immediate effect, a step up from its previous advisory to defer all non-essential travel.

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Lawrence Wong, National Development Minister and co-chair of a multi-ministry task force set up to deal with the coronavirus, said there are many Singaporeans abroad who want to return to Singapore during this critical period, and the government wants to encourage them to return.

"We have to expect that from the way the virus is transmitted, some of the returning will be infected," Mr Wong said, adding that there will be more cases.

This is why the new measures are in place, he said, so that the authorities can quickly isolate and treat these cases to minimise the risk of broader transmission to other Singaporeans.

The coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan, China, late last year and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization last week, has sickened more than 201,000 and killed over 8,000 people globally.

But beyond the public health crisis, investors' fear of the pandemic has wreaked havoc in stock markets worldwide, while national lockdowns across the globe and supply-chain disruptions are threatening to bring the global economy to a standstill.