She had been due to return on Jan 30 to complete her graduate exchange programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) after spending Chinese New Year with her family in Shenzhen.

But even before she arrived in Singapore, Lily, a Chinese national who declined to give her full name, heard from her housemates that her Singaporean landlady was hesitant to have her back. Lily had been renting a room in a four-room flat in Jurong, and the home owner did not want to risk contracting the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China.