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JOHANNESBURG • South African police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown yesterday fired rubber bullets at hundreds of shoppers queueing outside a supermarket in Johannesburg, an Agence France-Presse photographer said. Between 200 and 300 people gathered outside a popular grocery store, Shoprite, early in the day in Yeoville, a crime-prone area in Johannesburg’s gritty central business district […]

As the coronavirus rampages across the planet, governments and hospitals are desperate for personal protective equipment (PPE) to deal with a rising flood of ill people putting healthcare staff at risk. “The chronic global shortage of personal protective gear is now one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives,” World […]

Singapore has further tightened restrictions on the entry of foreigners, announcing yesterday that all long-term visit pass (LTVP) holders and student pass holders have to obtain approval from the authorities first, starting from 11.59pm tonight. This comes as the number of coronavirus cases here passed the 800 mark to hit 802, after the Health Ministry […]

Crowds in Orchard Road were visibly thinner yesterday after stricter safe distancing measures were put in place, and the Government reminded the public to stay home and go out only for essential needs. Shoppers dutifully queued to enter shopping centres to limit numbers inside, some for nearly an hour, while maintaining a 1m distance from […]

Between social distancing measures and the mandatory closure of entertainment outlets, the usual crowds were nowhere to be seen yesterday. Business had all but halted at sites usually popular with both Singaporeans and tourists. In Haji Lane, local shops were largely devoid of shoppers, although a number of passers-by were taking pictures of the iconic […]

Enterprise Singapore has denied claims circulating on social media and text-messaging apps that one of its safe distancing ambassadors had fined a member of the public. It addressed the claims in a Facebook post on Friday. One of the claims on social media was put up by a user who said she witnessed a customer […]

Japan’s megacities of Tokyo and Osaka came to a virtual standstill yesterday as millions of residents heeded their leaders’ call to stay home this weekend to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The governors of at least eight prefectures in Japan – Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Yamanashi, which comprise the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area, […]

JAKARTA • Indonesia’s capital Jakarta has announced a two-week extension of its state of emergency following a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases. Mr Anies Baswedan told reporters during a video conference yesterday that the state of emergency, imposed on March 20 to try to slow the spread of the virus in South-east Asia’s largest city, […]

PUTRAJAYA • More than 400 people in Malaysia were arrested over Thursday and Friday for flouting the country’s movement control order (MCO), which has shut schools and businesses and only allows people to leave their homes for essential goods and services, such as food and medical care. The month-long controls, which will be in place […]

WUHAN • Dozens of people clashed on the Hubei border after the Chinese government lifted a two-month quarantine on Hubei province, the epicentre of China’s outbreak, highlighting the challenges of undoing the unprecedented measures taken to contain the virus. The conflict began on Friday morning on a bridge connecting Hubei and neighbouring Jiangxi province, as […]

SYDNEY • A fight over toilet paper in an Australian supermarket yesterday, the latest violence sparked by coronavirus-induced panic buying in the country, has prompted the police to call for calm. A video widely shared online shows three women pulling one another’s hair and screaming as they struggle over a large pack of the highly […]

MANILA • Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte will declare a public health emergency to help contain the spread of the coronavirus, after the country recorded its first case of community transmission, officials said yesterday. The nation’s health ministry has reported three new cases of the infection since Friday, adding to the three Chinese tourists who were […]

As Singapore’s list of confirmed coronavirus cases grows longer, all activities and classes at community clubs (CCs) and residents’ committees (RCs) that were attended by those infected will be suspended for the next two weeks. The decision was taken after it emerged that several cases in the cluster at Safra Jurong were involved in singing […]

Coronavirus infections continued to spread rapidly around the world – especially in emerging hot spots across Europe – officially crossing the 100,000 mark globally. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) tamped down hopes that the outbreak may taper off with warmer weather in summer, saying the virus might continue to spread. Yesterday, the number of […]

The Feb 15 event at Safra Jurong, which has been linked to 21 Covid-19 cases as of last night, was a Chinese New Year celebration attended by members of a Hokkien singing group. According to the event’s emcee, about 200 people were at the dinner, and the night featured song-and-dance performances and a lohei tossing […]

It has been a lean few weeks for hawkers at the Chinatown Complex Food Centre, but some tasty promotions this weekend have got diners streaming in to get their fix of local fare. It was a welcome sight for the stall owners, who have seen business dip by up to 80 per cent as people […]

The perennial question of how clean Singapore is has once again come under the spotlight, with the Government last week emphasising the importance of public hygiene in combating the spread of the coronavirus. The Republic might have a reputation of being a clean city, but a Sunday Times check at five hawker centres islandwide found […]

NEW YORK • Now that we know it is bad to touch our faces, how do we break a habit that most of us did not know we had? Throughout the day, we touch a lot of surfaces – doorknobs, lift buttons, subway poles – where viruses, including the new coronavirus, can linger for days. […]

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat urged people yesterday to be kinder to one another during the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking at the launch of Overcome As One, a campaign organised by the Singapore Kindness Movement, at Our Tampines Hub, he said: “Singaporeans have been responding very well. They have been very caring, responsible and vigilant. […]

Some panicked after mistaking the number of discharged coronavirus cases for the death toll. Others read reports that their home countries would be banning travellers from Singapore and tried to quit their jobs in a fluster. With fake news spreading faster than the coronavirus itself among foreign workers, the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) has been […]

WUHAN • A 20-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, travelled 675km north to Anyang where she infected five relatives, without ever showing signs of infection, Chinese scientists reported on Friday, offering new evidence that the virus can be spread asymptomatically. Their study, published in the Journal Of The American Medical […]

Lawyer Lee Suet Fern has been found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of grossly improper professional conduct in her handling of the last will of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister and her father-in-law. Her case will be referred to the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ […]

1. WASH HANDS MORE OFTEN The simple task of washing hands is now serious business. Experts, knowing that the coronavirus is transmitted mainly via droplets and physical contact, advise hand hygiene in the fight against Covid-19. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Learn more about ST PREMIUM. Enjoy unlimited access […]

Q My grades are good, but not good enough to get into the competitive courses such as computing or business, so I am hoping to get into university through aptitude-based admissions. How is it done? And how can I prepare myself for it, especially for the personal essay and interview? A Those hoping to land […]

Hawkers have welcomed the Government’s move to introduce rental waivers in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, although a number hope more will be done to defray the drop in business caused by smaller crowds. Mr Afiq Rezza, 30, whose family’s stall at Block 724 Ang Mo Kio Food Centre is known for its mee […]

As the coronavirus outbreak continues in Singapore, some food and beverage operators are taking no chances, stepping up their hygiene practices to minimise chances of infection. The GHK @ Khatib coffee shop in Yishun has increased the number of cleaners per shift – to three from two. Staff are also given rubber gloves, and toilets […]

There are three new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Singapore, bringing the total number infected to 89, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday. Two more patients with the disease, known as Covid-19, have been discharged, bringing the number of people discharged to 49. The two who were discharged are Case 19, a 28-year-old […]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries around the world to act quickly, as the window of opportunity to curb the wide spread of the disease known as Covid-19 is shrinking. Urging nations to invest in preparedness, the United Nations agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “If we do well within the narrowing window […]

About 70 volunteers from the labour movement’s various communities banded together yesterday to put together 5,500 care packs for workers in Singapore, as part of the fight against the coronavirus disease known as Covid-19. The packing efforts were carried out in two locations – the NTUC Centre at One Marina Boulevard and NTUC’s e2i at […]

Lawyer Lee Suet Fern has been found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of grossly improper professional conduct in her handling of the last will of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister and her father-in-law. Her case will be referred to the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ […]