The Singapore bank DBS has cleared a downtown office and told some 300 employees to work from home after one of its staff was infected with the new virus.
In a statement to the Associated Press, DBS bank said “We are also currently conducting detailed contact tracing with all employees and other parties that the infected person may have come into contact with."
As of Tuesday, there have been 47 confirmed cases of the virus, recently named COVID-19, in Singapore.
More than 1,100 people in China have died from the virus. More than 45,000 cases have been reported globally.
The World Health Organization says it is not sure where the virus outbreak is headed next but believes there is still hope of containing it. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO said, “In recent days, we have seen some concerning instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China, like the cases reported in France yesterday and the U.K. today.”
The discovery Wednesday added to concerns that also led authorities to scale back an air show drawing thousands of visitors. Airlines and aircraft makers have taken a body blow from the outbreak. Boeing executives acknowledged that the crisis is bound to slow sales this year, after the aircraft maker reported zero orders for new jets in January and forecast the cargo business will likely contract in 2020.
The outbreak has prompted many airlines to halt flights to and from China and devastated travel within the country.