All short-term visitors barred from entering or transiting in Singapore

 All short-term visitors will no longer be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore from 11.59pm on Monday (March 23) in view of the heightened risks of importing coronavirus cases into the country.

Work pass holders and their dependants will be allowed to return to Singapore only if they work in sectors that provide essential services such as healthcare and transport.

This will also kick in at 11.59pm on Monday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement on Sunday, reports The Straits Times.  

The measures were announced a day after two patients - a 75-year-old Singaporean woman and a 64-year-old Indonesian man - died from Covid-19 due to complications. They were the first deaths the Republic has seen.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said at a briefing on Sunday morning that the measures to "significantly tighten" Singapore's borders are taken in the light of the rapidly escalating virus outbreak around the world.

Previously, except for a handful of countries, short-term visitors from elsewhere were allowed to come into Singapore but were issued a 14-day stay-home notice (SHN) upon arrival.

This meant, however, that resources were being expended to serve and enforce SHNs on them, and if they fell ill, to provide them with medical treatment. On Saturday, there were still 533 short-term visitors arriving in Singapore.

The new coronavirus pandemic, first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, kept spreading to newer countries.

The deadly virus spread to at least 188 countries and territories, killing some 13,050 people globally, according to Worldometer, a website which compiles number of new coronavirus cases and deaths from it.

As many as 308,010 people worldwide caught the virus. Among them, 95,797 people recovered from the virus, the website said.