7 suspected Sars cases identified at Changi airport
SINGAPORE -- Singapore airport authorities said on Tuesday that nurses examining arriving passengers had intercepted at least seven suspected cases of a deadly flu-like illness in less than 24 hours.
Nurses are expected to screen about 35 flights a day arriving from places the World Health Organization has identified as high risk areas, including Vietnam, Hongkong and China. -- AP
Seven nurses clad in yellow hospital gowns and surgical masks were the first to greet passengers on a flight from Beijing as soon as they stepped into the terminal from the boarding bridge, as airport officials gave reporters a glimpse at the new measures.
Nurses identified the seven suspected cases in the first 20 hours after the Health Ministry posted them at the main airport on Monday at 8 pm to try to halt the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, said Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore spokesman Albert Tjoeng.
Singapore's Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang has said that the disease likely entered Singapore through the airport. 6th Index case
Singapore on Tuesday reported a sixth imported Sars case, including three new cases of infection, raising the Republic's reported cases to 95.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the latest index case involved a 56-year-old Chinese national who arrived from China's Fujian province near Guangdong on March 16 to visit her daughter.
'She became unwell on March 28 and was admitted to Tan Tong Seng Hospital as a suspect Sars case on March 29,' it said.
She has since been 'diagnosed as a Sars case,' it said, adding home quarantine orders are being issued.
All of Singapore's 92 reported cases of Sars can be traced back to five people who had traveled to Hongkong. Four people have died of Sars in Singapore.
Arriving passengers -- some wearing surgical masks of their own -- filed quickly past as the nurses asked them how they were feeling.
'If we suspect a case or think a person is not feeling well, we give them a mask and take them to hospital,' Mr Tjoeng said.
Nurses are expected to screen about 35 flights a day arriving from places the World Health Organization has identified as high risk areas, including Vietnam, Hongkong and China, according to the civil aviation authority.
Airport cleaners were seen disinfecting all railings and counters, a procedure that is repeated at least four times a day, Mr Tjoeng said.
Also on Tuesday, DBS Group, one of Southeast Asia's largest banks, suspended all travel to Sars-affected areas after an employee in Hongkong became infected with the illness.
Techno artist Moby cancelled a concert scheduled to take place in Singapore on Tuesday and a show in Hongkong, citing the outbreak. The annual Singapore Business Awards ceremony planned for Thursday was also postponed.
In Kuala Lumpur meanwhile, Malaysia's health authorities on announced the country's first suspected Sars cases, the official Bernama news agency reported.
Health ministry director general Mohamad Taha Arif was quoted as saying that eight people with suspected Sars had been admitted to hospital for tests. A 37-year-old woman has been in hospitalised in Johor, while the other seven cases were reported in and around Kuala Lumpur, he said. -- AP, AFP