SINGAPORE - Some commuters had their journeys disrupted on Wednesday morning (Feb 12) when three public buses were involved in a chain collision, injuring 11 people who were taken to hospital.

Two SBS Transit buses - services 19 and 37 - and a service 34 bus operated by Go-Ahead Singapore were involved in the collision at 6.45am at the junction of Tampines Avenue 7 and Avenue 9.

The police said a bus driver and 10 passengers were taken to Changi General Hospital. They were conscious after the accident.

Ms Tammy Tan, SBS Transit's senior vice-president of corporate communications, said the two SBS Transit buses had stopped one behind the other at the junction as the lights were red when the Go-Ahead Singapore bus knocked into one of them.

"Service 37 was rear-ended by another bus, a service 34, causing it to surge forward to hit service 19 in the rear," she said.

Ms Tan said the SBS Transit bus drivers and passengers were not injured in the accident.

A Go-Ahead spokesman told reporters that its bus driver was among the injured. He and nine other injured passengers have since been discharged.

The bus company is also in contact with eight of the injured commuters to provide assistance and is attempting to reach the other two, the spokesman added.

The company said it is cooperating fully with the police in the accident investigation.

​One injured commuter, customer service officer Tiara Lydia Yew, 25, is still warded at Changi General Hospital and will need to stay there until at least Thursday for further treatment.

Her mother, Ms Norazita Paiman, 50, said that her daughter was on her way home from work when the accident happened.

Ms Yew has cuts on her upper lip and injuries on her left knee after she was flung against the front glass panel of the Go-Ahead bus upon impact.

SINGAPORE: Valentine’s Day is the occasion when Mdm Wong Li Hua makes the most money in the year.

But the florist was visibly frustrated when she spoke to reporters. Sales at her shop at The Arcade have fallen by 50 per cent compared to the same period last year after Singapore raised its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) alert level to Orange last Friday, Mdm Wong said. 

Since the announcement, companies islandwide commenced their business continuity plans to limit the spread of the COVID-19. Many, including the financial institutions and technology giants that have offices in the Central Business District (CBD), have arranged to split employees’ shifts or have them work from home.

Besides fewer walk-in customers because those who work in the area are staying at home, the closure of the linkways between The Arcade and Clifford Centre has caused some confusion among her customers, Mdm Wong said. 

Some who finally made their way to her shop said they thought her store was closed, the florist said.

“Who isn’t worried,” Mdm Wong said in Mandarin of the virus creating a dent in her business. “Every year, we rely on this occasion to earn money.” 

At lunchtime on Wednesday (Feb 12) afternoon, the CBD was still visibly bustling with office workers, but most owners and staff of the 13 eateries and retailers located in the area reporters spoke to said that sales are down anywhere between 10 and 50 per cent since the beginning of this week.

Other shopkeepers at The Arcade also saw a dip in sales. 

At minimart Haja T&T Trading, its owner Haja Aladudeen said that against last week's records, his daily takings have tumbled by 40 per cent. He does not know what to do to shore up his business and can only fret in the meantime, he said. 

ZTP Ginseng Birdnest supervisor Loh Ken Tiam said that the Chinese medicinal shop has seen daily earnings dip by 30 per cent compared to last week. On a normal day, the shop takes in about S$2,000 to S$3,000, he said. 

Over at Tanjong Pagar, the situation was similar.

Tomy Chen, the co-owner of Pho Stop at Downtown Gallery, said that sales fell by 20 per cent on Monday, and 30 per cent on Tuesday and Wednesday compared to the same period last week. 

If dine-in sales continue to fall, Mr Chen said some staff will be transferred to their delivery kitchens located at Lavender and Katong. He is hoping that an increase in demand for food deliveries will offset the dip at their CBD outlet. 

Lum Von-Nie, who runs the Basil & Mint hawker stall at Amoy Road Food Centre, said that delivery orders have helped to cushion some of the dip in revenue. For example, she earned 20 per cent less on Tuesday week-on-week, but deliveries cut her losses by 10 per cent. 

“It’s good that the authorities are quick to respond to false news, so hopefully that helps assure the public that there is no reason not to eat out,” Ms Lum, who runs the stall alone, said, “But yes, (I’m) bracing for the worst." 

It is a difficult situation to be in, especially as F&B businesses operate on thin profit margins, said Mr Willin Low, owner of Relish@Frasers Tower. His lunch business has dropped by 45 to 55 per cent. Mr Low said he is in talks with other restaurant owners to see if they can come up with a plan collectively to tide through this period. 

“Hopefully regular customers and landlords will support restaurants to keep them in business,” he added. 

But for some others, it is business as usual.

One Korean grocery store shop assistant, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak, said that sales have been brisk, especially over the weekend when people came to stock up on rice and instant noodles. 

OFFICE STAFF WORKING FROM HOME

Last Friday, the Singapore Government moved the DORSCON status to Orange. The Ministry of Health urged companies to “step up” their business continuity plan, with suggestions that employees could telecommute or be divided into separate teams.

Banks, technology firms and property consultancies with offices in the CBD have heeded the advice and kickstarted their segregation strategies. 

United Overseas Bank (UOB) said in a media statement on Monday (Feb 10) that it activated its business continuity plans for all critical functions and services, with employees working from split sites, from home and on split shifts. 

Similar measures have been put in place at DBS, according to a spokesperson. Its 12,000 employees across Singapore, either work from home or from separate sites. 

A DBS employee was confirmed on Wednesday to be infected by the coronavirus, prompting the bank to evacuate 300 of its staff members from its offices on the 43rd floor at Tower 3 of Marina Bay Financial Centre.

Twitter, whose Asia-Pacific headquarters is located in CapitaGreen, said that they have a “cross-functional operational taskforce in place (to) take necessary measures, including work from home policies, to protect our people and our business operations”. 

Tech giant Facebook said that they have “taken steps to protect the health and safety of our employees”, although the company already has a flexible working approach in place. Microsoft noted a similar arrangement in their response. 

Facebook and Microsoft’s Singapore offices are located at Marina One and Frasers Towers, respectively. 

Real estate firm Colliers International, which has 350 employees in Singapore and an office in Asia Square, said that it has encouraged all its staff to work from home following the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. 

“This flexible work arrangement will remain in place until the end of March 2020 and we will review the need to extend it,” its managing director Tang Wei Leng said. 

Staff based at CBRE’s offices are also split into teams who are either working from home or at the office, the company said. Employees who are pregnant and those with prior respiratory conditions will work from home. 

The property consultancy has about 1,600 employees in Singapore. Four hundred are based in one of its two offices at Paya Lebar Quarter or Six Battery Road. The rest of the estimated 1,200 are based off-site in clients’ offices. 

GENEVA: The UN health agency on Tuesday (Feb 11) announced that "COVID-19" will be the official name of the deadly coronavirus from China, saying the disease represented a "very grave threat" for the world but there was a "realistic chance" of stopping it.

"We now have a name for the disease and it's COVID-19," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.

Tedros said that "co" stands for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease", while "19" was for the year, as the outbreak was first identified on Dec 31.

Tedros said the name had been chosen to avoid references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people in line with international recommendations for naming aimed at preventing stigmatisation.

WHO had earlier given the virus the temporary name of "2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease" and China's National Health Commission this week said it was temporarily calling it "novel coronavirus pneumonia" or NCP.

Under a set of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO advises against using place names such as Ebola and Zika - where those diseases were first identified and which are now inevitably linked to them in the public mind.

More general names such as "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome" or "Spanish flu" are also now avoided as they can stigmatise entire regions or ethnic groups.

WHO also notes that using animal species in the name can create confusion, such as in 2009 when H1N1 was popularly referred to as "swine flu".

This had a major impact on the pork industry even though the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs.

People's names - usually the scientists who identified the disease - are also banned, as are "terms that incite undue fear" such as "unknown" or "fatal", the WHO said.

MORE POWERFUL THAN TERRORIST ATTACK​​​​​​​

The virus has killed more than 1,000 people, infected over 42,000 and reached some 25 countries, with the WHO declaring a global health emergency.

Addressing scientists at the first international conference on combating the virus earlier on Tuesday, Tedros warned that the virus was a "very grave threat".

"Viruses can have more powerful consequences than any terrorist action," he told reporters later.

About 400 scientists were taking part in the two-day international meeting in Geneva called to review how the virus is transmitted and possible vaccines against it.

"We are not defenceless," Tedros said, adding: "If we invest now ... we have a realistic chance of stopping this outbreak."

Participants will also discuss the source of the virus, which is thought to have originated in bats and reached humans via other "intermediary" species such as snakes or pangolins.

WHO sent an advance team to China this week for an international mission to examine the epidemic.

It was unclear, however, whether the team would be able to visit Wuhan, a city in central China which has been under lockdown after the outbreak was registered in a food and live animal market in the city.

ROADMAP FOR RESEARCH

No specific treatment or vaccine against the virus exists, and WHO has repeatedly urged countries to share data in order to further research into the disease.

"That is especially true in relation to sharing of samples and sequences. To defeat this outbreak, we need open and equitable sharing, according to the principles of fairness and equity," Tedros told the scientific conference.

He said he hoped the scientists could agree a roadmap "around which researchers and donors will align".

Several teams of experts in Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany and the United States are racing to develop a vaccine - a process that normally takes years.

Efforts to come up with a vaccine are being led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a body established in 2017 to finance costly biotechnology research in the wake of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.

Ultimately, however, scientists may end up in the same situation they were during the 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - which died out before a vaccine could be fully developed.

A close cousin of COVID-19, SARS spread around the world and killed nearly 800.

David James Roach, suspected of robbing a Standard Chartered bank in 2016, has been ordered extradited to Singapore, according to a Canadian media report on Wednesday (Feb 12).

This latest development in the case comes after Roach's appeal to the high court in London was dismissed last week, The Chronicle Herald, a Canadian newspaper said.

He previously contested his extradition in February 2018 which revolved around human rights, but his appeal was dismissed in August 2018. 

However, it is not known when Roach will be extradited.

“We would not provide the details of when this would happen or who would accompany him,” said a London police spokesperson.

The Canadian report said Roach's lawyer declined to comment when contacted.

According to the UK Government website, a person should normally be extradited within 10 days of the final court order. 

However, this time limit can be extended in "exceptional circumstances, and with the agreement of the requesting state".

Canada will continue to provide consular assistance to Roach, the report added.

“Canadian officials have raised the case directly with the UK government and are closely monitoring developments,” Angela Savard, a spokesperson with Global Affairs Canada told The Chronicle Herald.

“Due to the provisions of the Privacy Act, no further information can be disclosed.”

In 2018, the Singapore Government agreed that a sentence of corporal punishment will not be carried out if Roach is found guilty by a Singapore court.

Roach, then 28, allegedly stole S$30,000 from a Standard Chartered bank branch in Holland Village in July 2016.

The 28-year-old Canadian then fled to Thailand where he was jailed for 14 months for failing to declare the large sum of money. Singapore had asked Thai authorities to send Roach to Singapore to face charges but they decided to deport him to Canada. 

​Roach was on the way to Canada when he was detained at London's Heathrow Airport by officers from the Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit on Jan 11.

Singapore sought his extradition on one count of robbery and one count of money laundering. Both offences carry a maximum jail term of 10 years.

SINGAPORE: The number of personal mobility device (PMD)-related fires almost doubled in 2019, annual statistics released by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) showed on Wednesday (Feb 12).

There were 102 fires involving PMDs last year, a “sharp increase” from the 52 incidents in 2018, SCDF said. This figure has steadily increased since 2015, when only one PMD-related fire was reported.

On the other hand, power-assisted bicycles (PAB)-related fires went down from 22 cases in 2018 to 13 cases last year.

This comes after the Government set up a task force, comprising agencies like SCDF, the Land Transport Authority and Housing and Development Board, last September to tackle the issue of PMD-related fires.

SCDF director of operations Assistant Commissioner (AC) Daniel Seet said the PMD-related fires in 2019 all involved non-UL2272 certified devices, adding that they had "some sort of modifications" - mainly to the battery.

Fires involving PMDs and PABs caused 46 injuries in 2019, a 77 per cent spike from the 26 injuries in 2018. This includes one fatality last year, when a 40-year-old man who was rescued from a PMD-related fire in Bukit Batok died in hospital.

The SCDF highlighted that in 2019, almost 70 per cent of such fires occurred in homes.

“SCDF urges members of the public, especially PMD owners, to be vigilant when handling their devices as fires involving PMDs and PABs can result in casualties and serious damage to property,” it said.

Calling the increase in such fires an “area of concern”, SCDF said it would continue to highlight the related fire safety risks and educate the public on preventive measures through social and mainstream media.

“All owners of non-UL2272 certified PMDs should also dispose of their devices at designated disposal points,” it added.

Nevertheless, AC Seet said PMD-related fires have dropped since December last year, pointing out that the e-scooter footpath ban which kicked in last November has made an "impact".

"We will continue to monitor this; this is something that the inter-agency task force is working closely on," he said, adding that the task force meets once every two months.

"We are meeting to review all the various cases that have happened in the previous month to understand what's the specific nature of each case. Many of these cases are still undergoing investigations."

FIRES, CAUSES AND INJURIES

Overall, SCDF responded to 2,862 fire calls in 2019, an 8 per cent increase from the year before.

SCDF said dropped light cases remains the leading cause of fires, accounting for 37 per cent of all fires last year. Electrical origin fires were the second highest.

Dropped light refers to the indiscriminate disposal of lit materials, like lit cigarette butts that were not completely extinguished, charcoal embers and lit incense sticks.

Fires in residential premises accounted for 41 per cent of total fire calls. A majority of these were unattended cooking fires, followed by discarded item fires and household contents fires.

“SCDF would like to remind members of the public not to leave their cooking unattended, and not to discard items at the common areas such as lift lobbies, common corridors and staircase landings,” it said.

“Such discarded items not only pose a fire risk but may obstruct people who are evacuating the area during an emergency.”

Another 42 per cent occurred in non-building places like vegetation and vehicles.

While the latter decreased by 12 per cent, the number of vegetation fires in 2019 increased by 50 per cent to 883 cases. “This was largely due to the sustained dry weather between January and March 2019 as well as between July and September 2019,” SCDF said.

SCDF said it will address this increase by continuing to work closely with the Wildlife Task Force, comprising members from relevant agencies like the National Environment Agency and National Parks Board.

“Patrols at fire hot spots will also be increased during dry periods to detect possible fire risks and promptly attend to any fire occurrences,” it said.

Finally, the remaining 17 per cent of fire calls occurred in non-residential premises, including commercial, industrial as well as social and communal premises.

SCDF said there were 142 fire injuries in 2019, a 60 per cent increase from the year before. Sixty per cent of these were smoke inhalation cases, while the remaining were burns. The majority of the fire injuries had occurred in residential buildings.

Another 42 per cent occurred in non-building places like vegetation and vehicles.

While the latter decreased by 12 per cent, the number of vegetation fires in 2019 increased by 50 per cent to 883 cases. “This was largely due to the sustained dry weather between January and March 2019 as well as between July and September 2019,” SCDF said.

SCDF said it will address this increase by continuing to work closely with the Wildlife Task Force, comprising members from relevant agencies like the National Environment Agency and National Parks Board.

“Patrols at fire hot spots will also be increased during dry periods to detect possible fire risks and promptly attend to any fire occurrences,” it said.

Finally, the remaining 17 per cent of fire calls occurred in non-residential premises, including commercial, industrial as well as social and communal premises.

SCDF said there were 142 fire injuries in 2019, a 60 per cent increase from the year before. Sixty per cent of these were smoke inhalation cases, while the remaining were burns. The majority of the fire injuries had occurred in residential buildings.

​LONDON - Four more patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in Britain to eight, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Monday (Feb 10).

The new cases were all known contacts of a previously confirmed British patient in France, and were identified by public health officials working to trace possible cases.

SINGAPORE: Students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will have to log their attendance for lessons and co-curricular activities from Wednesday (Feb 12), to facilitate contact tracing if needed, in light of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

Students must log their attendance by scanning a QR code on their smartphones, said the circular sent out on Tuesday morning, signed by deputy president and provost Professor Ling San. 

Location-specific QR codes will be placed at the entrance of lecture theatres, seminar and tutorial rooms, laboratories and meeting rooms on campus. Scanning them will lead students to an online form where they will be required to fill in their name and mobile number, wrote Prof Ling in the circular. 

All classes with more than 50 students will be “replaced by digital forms of learning”, and this applies to all tests, quizzes and face-to-face exams, said the circular. While classes with 50 or fewer students may continue, instructors can also choose to implement e-learning. 

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) had earlier announced e-learning measures for classes above 50 students from Monday, as well as the cancellation or postponement of large-scale events. 

Similar to NUS and SMU, NTU will also require its students to take their temperature twice a day and declare it online. 

​The university also acknowledged that students who are planning events on behalf of their schools, clubs and halls of residence have asked for advice on whether the events should continue. 

“The guideline is to limit student activities and events to 50 participants. Student organisers should discuss if these events should proceed having regard to the circumstances and keep within this limit,” wrote Prof Ling.

For events involving non-NTU participants, organisers will have to get a QR code from NTU’s Office of Health, Safety and Security, for participants to check in if the event venue does not have an existing QR code, or keep a registration list of participants with their contact details, he said. 

Temperature screening should be implemented for all participants and venues should be well ventilated with adequate hand-washing facilities, the circular read. Those who are feeling unwell or on leave of absence should not attend the event. 

“The university will continue to provide further updates and adopt additional precautionary measures, if necessary,” wrote Prof Ling. 

Singapore confirmed two more cases of the coronavirus on Monday. One is a Certis Cisco employee who served quarantine orders on two people from Wuhan and the other is a two-year-old girl who was one of the Singaporeans evacuated from Wuhan on Jan 30. 

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 45, with seven in critical condition. Another seven have fully recovered from the virus and have since been discharged. 

The coronavirus epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people and infected more than 40,000, most of them in mainland China.

SINGAPORE: The tourism sector will take a “significant hit”, with visitor arrivals estimated to fall by 25 per cent to 30 per cent this year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Tuesday (Feb 11). 

The coronavirus outbreak has significantly impacted visitor arrivals, especially from China, which accounts for about 20 per cent of international visitor arrivals here, said STB in a media release. 

There were about 3.6 million visitors from China in 2019. Compared to 2018, there was a 12 per cent increase in visitors from Tier 2 Chinese cities like Jinan, Ningbo and Xiamen, it added. 

China was also Singapore’s top revenue market in the first three quarters of 2019, accounting for S$3.2 billion in tourism receipts excluding the sightseeing, gaming and entertainment segments, up by 2 per cent from 2018. 

“Visitor arrivals from STB’s other key source markets are also expected to fall due to lower travel confidence globally,” said STB. 

Singapore is losing an average of 18,000 to 20,000 international visitors per day and most of the lost visitor arrivals are Chinese due to travel restrictions on both sides, STB chief executive Keith Tan told media on Tuesday. 

He noted that the estimated decrease in visitor arrivals could change depending on how long the situation in China lasts, how long the situation in Singapore and regional economies lasts, and how long it will take for traveller demand to return. 

“We believe that the situation this year will be at least as severe as the situation we faced in 2003 during SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), probably worse.”  

However, after four years of consecutive growth, the tourism authorities said the sector is aiming for a strong recovery, with a pipeline of tourism investments and efforts to build new capabilities. 

“Our destination remains attractive, we have a strong pipeline of tourism products, and our market portfolio is diverse,” said Mr Tan. 

“The growth that we have enjoyed over the past four years reflects our strong tourism fundamentals,” he added. 

The Government will also form a public-private sector Tourism Recovery Action Task Force (TRAC) to lay out the plans for recovery and future growth, said STB. 

The Task Force will comprise tourism leaders from the public and private sectors, and it will work to identify opportunities arising from the coronavirus outbreak, boost confidence in Singapore’s tourism spots and create recovery plans.

The statutory board had announced on Feb 2 that licence fees for hotels, travel agents and tour guides would be waived to help Singapore’s tourism sector, which has been “directly affected” by the coronavirus outbreak. 

STB will also defray the cleaning costs of hotels that provided accommodation to the confirmed and suspected cases of the coronavirus. Full details of the overall package of relief measures will be announced at Budget 2020 on Feb 18.

As the coronavirus situation is expected to persist, the tourism board will continue to identify "targeted and effective ways” to support the industry and its employees, it said. 

STB will also maintain its plans to enhance Singapore’s destination attractiveness, with work progressing on the Mandai Nature Precinct, the Jurong Lake District, the Sentosa-Brani masterplan, the rejuvenation of Orchard Road and the expansion of the Integrated Resorts. 

“It is more important than ever to invest in tourism to support our businesses, build confidence in tourism, and boost our destination attractiveness – so that when things start to improve, Singapore can ride on the recovery for strong growth,” said Mr Tan. 

“STB remains committed to our mid- to long-term tourism plans, to ensure that Singapore has a steady pipeline of new and repeat visitors.”

VISITOR ARRIVALS, TOURISM RECEIPTS GREW IN 2019

Singapore saw growth in visitor arrivals and tourism receipts for a fourth consecutive year in 2019. Visitor arrivals rose 3.3 per cent to a total of 19.1 million visitors, and they spent a total of S$27.1 billion in tourism receipts, 0.5 per cent more than in 2018. 

After China, Indonesia and India accounted for the second and third-most number of visitors to Singapore, with about 3.1 million and 1.4 million visitors respectively. 

Singapore also saw a 13 per cent increase in visitors and a 14 per cent increase in tourism receipts from the United States. This could be attributed partly to greater flight connectivity between Singapore and the United States, with new non-stop flights launched in 2019. 

SECTORAL PERFORMANCE

While the Business Travel and Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions (BTMICE) sector fell 7 per cent year-on-year to S$3.2 billion, Singapore continues to attract leading BTMICE events, STB said.

The hotel industry performed well in 2019, with growth registered across all categories. Total gazetted hotel room revenue stood at S$4.2 billion in 2019, as average room and occupancy rates rose.

Cruise passenger throughput fell 2.5 per cent to reach 1.8 million passengers. This decline is largely attributed to the dry docking of Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager of the Seas in Singapore for over a month to undergo refurbishment works, the tourism board said.

However, foreign cruise throughput grew by 3.5 per cent while ship calls rose 3.2 per cent to 414, with more European liners such as AIDA Cruises and Marella Cruises contributing to the growth. Demand for cruise remained strong in 2019, with Royal Caribbean International and Genting seeing healthy occupancy for their ships, STB said.

LONDON/MADRID - A British man who contracted the new coronavirus while attending a conference in Singapore may have led to seven other people catching the disease when he stopped off at a chalet in a French mountain village on his way home, health experts said on Sunday (Feb 9).

The man, Britain's third case of the virus, stayed for four days in the chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie late last month, under the same roof as a group of British holidaymakers as well as a British family who lived in the village.

Five people from that group in the Alpine ski resort, including a child, contracted the coronavirus as a result, French officials said this weekend.

The trail does not end there, however. The disease carried by the same man may have spread elsewhere, underlining the challenges health authorities face in containing infections in an era of global air travel.

Spanish authorities said on Sunday that a British man had tested positive in Mallorca after coming into contact with an infected person in France.

British health officials, meanwhile, said the country had recorded its fourth case of coronavirus, with the person catching the illness from a Briton in France.

Senior French health official Jerome Salomon confirmed in a televised statement that the two cases in Britain and Mallorca were linked to the group staying in the chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at England's University of East Anglia, said of the new virus patient in Britain: "This case is part of the same cluster which is being reported as linked to a British national returning from Singapore."

However, more broadly, while the outbreak of the new coronavirus has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, according to a Reuters count, only a tiny fraction of cases - about 330 out of over 37,000 - have been outside mainland China.

TRACING CHALET GROUP

Residents of Les Contamines-Montjoie, a few wearing facemasks, lined up on Sunday to get tested for the new coronavirus as authorities sought to contain the spread.

French officials said they were tracing all the people who might have been in close contact with the group of 11 Britons exposed to the virus after sharing lodgings in the village.

​Five of those tested positive, including a nine-year-old child and their father. Two other children - the infected child's siblings - were hospitalised in France for checks, officials added.

Their mother had left the country by the time the investigation began and was under observation in a UK hospital, French officials said. It was not clear if she was the latest case to be diagnosed in Britain.

Spanish authorities said the British man who had tested positive in Mallorca was one of four members of a family taken into observation on Friday after coming into contact with someone in France who was subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

The family appear to have been part of the larger group in the French ski resort, Fernando Simon, director of the Centre of Coordination of Health Emergencies at Spain's Health Ministry, told reporters.

However he said he could not confirm this 100 per cent because of respect for the family's privacy. The family returned to Mallorca from France on Jan 29 and the father started to show light symptoms 24 hours later.

Simon said the man was currently "in good health" but was being kept in isolation and authorities were drawing up a list of everyone he may have come into contact with in Mallorca.

SINGAPORE: A paedophile molested his six-year-old goddaughter in a toilet for the disabled, before instructing her to remove her clothes and taking photos of her genitals.

For one charge of molesting a minor and another of committing an obscene act with a child, the 36-year-old man was sentenced on Monday (Feb 10) to five years' jail and six strokes of the cane.

He cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of the victim.

The court heard that the man, who is hearing-impaired, was friends with the victim's father, who is hearing-impaired and mute.

The victim's father entrusted the offender with caring for his daughter, who was six at the time and in primary school.

As the girl's godfather, the offender took the victim to and from school everyday, sometimes buying food for her. 

​In 2015, the accused picked the girl up from school and went shopping at Toa Payoh Hub.

He wanted to urinate and took the girl into a toilet for the disabled with him. After urinating, he suddenly became sexually aroused and felt the urge to masturbate, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng. 

He instructed the girl to remove her clothes and she complied. He then took a photo of her naked body as she sat on the toilet bowl.

He used his fingers to expose the girl even further and took several close-up photos. 

He then masturbated while the girl was with him in the toilet. She kept quiet as she did not understand her godfather's actions, the court heard. 

The man kept the three photos so he could masturbate to them and made copies of them onto a hard disk he had.

GIRLFRIEND CALLS POLICE

His girlfriend stumbled upon the photos two years later in May 2017, when she was using his laptop. Recognising the little girl, she confronted the accused and demanded that he delete them. He refused. 

The girlfriend told the victim's parents about her discovery. They did not believe her at first, but when she sent them to photos, they became furious and confronted the accused. 

The accused begged the victim's father not to lodge a police report and the latter decided not to as he wanted to protect his daughter's privacy.

However, the accused's girlfriend reported the matter to the police. The offender deleted the photos and discarded his hard disk after learning about this.

The accused pleaded guilty on Monday to one charge of using criminal force on the victim to outrage her modesty and another of committing an obscene act with a child.

The prosecution sought at least five years' jail and six strokes of the cane, calling the accused "a menacing paedophile who has demonstrated a proclivity for committing sexual offences against youths and minors".

He had previously been fined for an obscene act in a public place - masturbating along a corridor when he saw two young girls under the age of 10.

Mr Ng said there was an "egregious abuse of trust and responsibility" as the accused was the victim's godfather, entrusted by the girl's parents to take her out.

He said the child was a particularly young victim, unable to comprehend the nature of the acts.

The accused did not just touch the child, he also exposed her body parts and took pictures of them, said the prosecutor.

He cited a report by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), which stated that the accused was a paedophile with a sexual attraction for young females between the ages of 10 and 12.

"The accused has a 60 per cent chance (of) reoffending during the next 19 years," said Mr Ng.

Defence lawyer Amarjit Singh Sidhu said his client admitted that this "is a sad case" and that "he has let his close ones down".

He asked for three years' jail, saying his client is remorseful and that this is his first offence involving a child.

He raised the issue of his client's fitness for caning, as his client previously had surgery for abdominal issues.

He also said his client had not circulated the pictures, but kept them for his own consumption.

"Somehow that sounds even more troubling," said District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim.

She said she had to take into account the fact that he was listed in the IMH report as someone in the high-risk category for reoffending.

For molesting a minor, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned or given any combination of these punishments.

For an indecent act with a child, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined a maximum S$10,000 or both.