The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced today (Feb. 4) that a detected cluster of Wuhan virus has been linked to a tourist spot in Lavender.

The four cases of limited local transmission were linked to Yong Thai Hang, a complementary health product shop at 24 Cavan Road, a popular stop for Chinese travellers.

Not widespread community transmission

These cases are the first instance of human-to-human transmission of the Wuhan virus in Singapore.

However, this is not widespread community transmission according to MOH Chief Health Scientist Professor Tan Chorh Chuan at a press conference on Feb. 4.

"A very important point is that we were able to identify the source of the infection and to establish a clear chain of transmission among those affected.

So what this means is that we are able to contain the infection and to take steps to prevent transmission to a wider number of individuals in the community"

Tan later added that this is "quite different" from widespread transmission where authorities are unable to identify where individuals who are infected caught the infections.

"Therefore it means that there could be undetected ways in which transmission is occurring," said Tan. "So we don't see this right now. It's something that we have to watch very carefully for"

Tan added that authorities still have to work on existing clusters to ringfence them, and actively look for other clusters so that they can take timely action.

Top image by Andrew Koay and NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.