Implications of COVID-19 clusters in Singapore for surveillance, response measures

Editor's Note

As of February 15, there were 36 cases of COVID-19 in Singapore that were linked epidemiologically to three clusters. These three clusters were linked to a tour group from China, a company conference, and a church.

Direct or prolonged close contact was reported among the individuals in the clusters; however, indirect transmission (eg, via fomites, shared food) could not be ruled out.

The median incubation period of the virus in these individuals was 4 days, and the interval between transmissions ranged between 3 and 4 days.

A total of 425 individuals who had close contact with individuals in the three clusters were quarantined. Only two developed COVID-19.

As of February 14, no additional cases linked to any of the three clusters had been identified.