Singapore saw its largest jump in confirmed Wuhan virus cases, with 8 new infected reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday (Feb 13). Numerous Christians at one of Singapore’s most profitable mega churches were infected during their weekly religious gathering.
There are now 58 confirmed cases, making Singapore the most infectious location of the deadly virus outside China. Local transmission is now widespread in Singapore, unlike Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan which only see imported cases.
Of the eight, five are contracted the virus from their church, Grace Assembly. One of the infected is a university professor from NUS’s faculty of Design and Environment. A senior preacher at the church was also infected.
The sixth and seventh cases are two Bangladesh nationals who were infected from their colleague at their worksite, Seletar Aerospace Heights. The eighth is the 30-year-old son of an infected DBS employee, earlier confirmed on Wednesday.
The infected church has since suspended services, but other churches and businesses are still operating to rake up as much money as possible. The Singapore government is also making special arrangements to import 30,000 China nationals on work permits to enter Singapore, as each of them pays S$700 in levies each month.