Number of coronavirus cases in Singapore could rise, cautions MOH chief health scientist
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Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, the MOH chief health scientist, said that given the rate at which new cases are being reported around the world, there is always a risk of new imported cases.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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The chief health scientist at the Ministry of Health (MOH), who led Singapore's public health response to the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic, has cautioned that the number of coronavirus cases here can rise any time.
While Singapore has managed to slow the spread of the disease, the virus continues to spread rapidly around the world.
Professor Tan Chorh Chuan told The Straits Times: "Singapore's approach of actively looking for new cases and quarantining close contacts has been effective in ring-fencing clusters of infection so far, and we have not seen evidence of community spread. However, it is premature to say that the worst is over.
"Given the rate at which new cases are being reported around the world, there is always a risk of new imported cases. We, therefore, have to remain vigilant."
The outbreak has evolved rapidly since it originated in Wuhan, China, in December. It has spread to over 40 countries and the total number of cases is now more than 82,000, with the bulk of them in China.
On Tuesday, the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new ones in China for the first time. In Singapore, a total of 66 of the 96 confirmed cases have fully recovered.
While the number of new cases in China has come down, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the sudden rise of cases in Italy, Iran and South Korea was "deeply concerning". Italy has more than 400 cases and 12 deaths, Iran has 139 cases and 19 deaths, and South Korea 1,595 cases and 13 deaths.
Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, programme leader for infectious diseases at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said the virus "spreads between people in a similar fashion as influenza - primarily through droplets and contact - but because it is a novel virus, there is no immunity to it and, hence, it appears to be highly transmissible".
Some scientists predicted that more than half of the world's population could have the coronavirus.
Prof Hsu said this is based on epidemiological modelling projections and occurs only if nothing is done to stop the spread of the virus. He said the coronavirus is "more serious than initially thought and the worst is yet to come for most countries".
Still, given current active and massive interventions in many countries, it is unlikely that the world will get to the stage where half the population is infected, he added.
