COVID-19 : S'pore to bar visitors with recent travel history to Italy, France, Spain and Germany

These visitors will not be allowed entry into or transit through Singapore from March 15, 2020, 2359 hours.

The border restriction was announced today by the republic's multi-ministry task force on COVID-19 as part of additional precautionary measures to slow down the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in the republic.

According to Health Minister Gan Kim Yong who is also the task force co-chairperson, as of Thursday, nearly 25 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Singapore were imported.

As of yesterday, the island city's tally stood at 187 positive cases.

"Over the past 10 days alone, there have been 23 imported cases, or nearly a third of all new cases. These included 13 cases with travel history to European countries and six cases from Indonesia," he said at the task force's press conference here.

Also present were Minister of National Development Lawrence Wong and director of medical services of the Ministry of Health, associate professor Kenneth Mak.

The task force noted that all these border restrictions were temporary, and will be reviewed regularly based on the global situation.

With immediate effect, the task force also announced that Singapore will cease port calls for all cruise vessels.

According to Wong, the Singapore government decided to cease port calls as it was prudent to do so based on available evidence and data.

On March 9, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said over the past two weeks, Singapore has handled more than 10 scheduled calls by cruise ships and disembarked more than 5,000 passengers.

The latest was the Singapore-based Costa Fortuna which took the authorities here about 14 hours for all 1,631 passengers on board to leave the Italian cruise ship.

Meanwhile, the task force advised Singaporeans to exercise caution when travelling to all countries affected by COVID-19, especially those which have exported cases.

These include the neighbouring countries, like Indonesia and the Philippines, and those further afield, like the United Kingdom, it said.