Bangladeshi in Singapore infected with coronavirus

DHAKA, Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi worker in Singapore has been infected with the novel coronavirus, the island nation’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said Sunday.

“Case 42 is a 39-year-old male Bangladesh national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder and has no recent travel history to China,” the MOH said in a press release.

The total number of people infected so far in Singapore is 43.

Dr. Ayesha Akther, assistant director of Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services, told Anadolu Agency that this is the first case of a coronavirus infection for any Bangladeshi national.

"But we have come to know it from the website of Singapore's Health Ministry and some news outlets. We will check it through our own channels,” Akther said.

The infected Bangladeshi has been shifted to an isolation room at Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), the MOH said.

According to MOH records, subsequent test results confirmed the Bangladeshi national as infected with the coronavirus, whose scientific name is 2019-nCoV, on Saturday afternoon.

He reported the onset of symptoms on Feb. 1 and sought treatment at various clinics and hospitals before being isolated by the emergency department of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the records showed.

Prior to being admitted to the hospital, the infected Bangladeshi expatriate had visited Mustafa Centre and stayed at The Leo dormitory.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Health Services in a statement issued Sunday night said from Jan. 21 to Feb. 9, more than 18,000 people coming from abroad have been screened at Dhaka airport and none was found to be infected by the coronavirus.

In addition, all 312 Bangladeshi nationals who returned from China earlier this month and were quarantined at a special camp and military-run hospital near the international airport in Dhaka are in good health and none have been reported as infected, the statement added.

More than 900 people have died in mainland China from the coronavirus, which first emerged in the city of Wuhan at the end of last year.

China's National Health Commission reported 97 new fatalities from the virus on Feb. 9, pushing the death toll to 908, most of whom are in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

Besides China, the virus has spread to more than 20 countries including the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, France, Russia, Spain and India.