Singapore Shuts Down Sole Vegetable Wholesale Market Because of SARS

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 21, 2003

Singapore Shuts Down Sole Vegetable Wholesale Market Because of SARS

Singapore has shut down its sole vegetable wholesale market after discovering that three people working there had been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

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Singapore has shut down its sole vegetable wholesale market after discovering that three people working there had been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

At a press conference on Sunday evening, Singapore Minister for Health Lim Hng Kiang said that the government closed the Pasir Panjang Vegetable Wholesale Market (PPWC) Saturday night after three males working there had been diagnosed to be SARS probable cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has now imposed a 10-day quarantine on all those who have worked or conducted business at the PPWC, he said.

Some 240 stall holders and direct employees working in PPWC have been placed under quarantine order and contact tracing is underway for other possible contacts assumed to be over 2000 people.

The PPWC is Singapore's sole vegetable wholesale market which has about 800 tenants and supplies 75 percent of the total fresh vegetables consumed by residents in Singapore.

On the same occasion, Singapore Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said that there will be a significant disruption of vegetable supply during this 10-day period.

But he assured the public that vegetable available in Singapore markets are safe for consumption on the back of measures his ministry has taken.

On April 20, there is an additional SARS case reported in Singapore, bringing the total to 178 patients. Of the total, 16 have died, 58 remain hospitalized and the 104 others have recovered from SARS and have been discharged from hospital.

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