Four NUS students under quarantine
Four students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) are being quarantined over the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan.
Associate Professor Leong Ching, the NUS dean of students, revealed this in a post on the NUS website yesterday.
She said the four are now in the government quarantine facility (GQF) at Prince George's Park Residences, at the eastern end of the Kent Ridge Campus.
In a previous post, Prof Leong said three of the students are well and have no symptoms.
Two of them returned from Hubei on Jan 23 and 26, while the third returned on Sunday.
The trio are expected to end quarantine on Feb 7, 10 and 15 respectively. Details on the fourth student were not revealed.
Three school hostels are designated GQFs, including Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Graduate Hall 1 and Singapore Management University's Prinsep Street Residences.
The hostel GQFs are mainly for students without suitable accommodation who have been served a quarantine order.
There are 524 people who have been quarantined, of which 222 are housed in GQFs.
Quarantine is a more stringent isolation than a leave of absence (LOA), as it comes under the Infectious Diseases Act, and is a government order.
Those on LOA may move in and out of their residence for necessities but those under a quarantine order must stay in their designated location at all times and cannot physically interact with others in the same premises.
Anyone flouting a quarantine order the first time may be fined up to $10,000, or jailed for up to six months, or both. The penalty is higher for subsequent breaches.
PRECAUTION
All students and school staff returning from China will take 14 days' LOA as a precaution.
Yesterday, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung told Parliament all overseas school trips to China from primary to tertiary level have been postponed.
Mr Ong also visited NUS and NTU yesterday, where he met the student volunteers on campus and joined them to deliver welfare and food packs to their peers.
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong also praised the students from NUS and NTU who delivered food three times a day to their peers in his ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday.
He said: "I want to thank everyone for showing that Singaporeans can rise to this occasion and overcome this challenging situation together.
"This is the Singapore spirit which will enable us to prevail against the virus."
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