THE Singaporean government has raised the risk assessment level of the novel coronavirus situation to Dorscon Orange, as four cases of local transmission are confirmed, said news reports.

The Health Ministry (MOH) said the new cases showed no apparent link to previous cases or had a history of travel to China. This brings the total number of the infected to 33 in the republic.

It is only the second time Singapore has activated the orange code. The first was for swine flu (H1N1) in 2009. The coding system was set up after the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003. 

Dorscon – short for Disease Outbreak Response System – Orange refers to a situation in which a virus is spreading in Singapore but not widely, and is being contained.

Previously, the risk assessment level was yellow, signifying that the virus was severe and could spread from person to person, but was chiefly occurring outside Singapore.

The MOH said today it was introducing additional measures “to minimise the risk of further transmission of the virus in the community”.

It said it would move to “aggressively trying to stop or limit further spread” according to a pandemic preparedness plan.

Event organisers to cancel or defer non-essential large-scale events, while employers should now require staff members to check their temperatures at least twice daily, it said.

Hospitals and schools are also required to step up measures to minimise the risk of transmission. For Inter-school and external activities are to be suspended until the end of the March school holidays, with immediate effect, while hospitals will care for pneumonia patients separately from other patients.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said the city state expected to see more cases of local transmission. 

Malaysia has also confirmed its first case of local transmission. Its health minister, Dr Dzulkely Ahmad said there was, however, no need for alarm as there needed to be close contact with the infected person for the virus to spread. – February 7, 2020.