300 Singapore bank staff evacuated over virus fears
Cambodia agrees to let cruise to dock after five countries turn it away
SINGAPORE/ PATTAYA/ TOKYO: The Singapore bank DBS on Wednesday cleared a downtown office and told some 300 employees to work from home after one of its staff was infected with the new virus, adding to concerns that also led authorities to scale back an air show drawing thousands of visitors. Singapore’s health ministry had confirmed 47 cases of the virus as of Tuesday.
DBS said in a statement it was informed on Wednesday morning that an employee was confirmed to be infected and that as a precautionary measure it told all staff working on the same floor to work from home.
“We are also currently conducting detailed contact tracing with all employees and other parties that the infected person may have come into contact with,” DBS said. The virus outbreak, which is centered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has prompted numerous cities inside China to go into lockdown.
BOEING AND AIRBUS FLAG INDUSTRY WOES
The Singapore air show’s events went ahead as scheduled on Wednesday, as rival aircraft makers Boeing and Airbus sought to draw attention to the aviation industry’s future potential while acknowledging the shadow cast by the outbreak that has led to cancellations of tens of thousands of flights.
Boeing, already struggling over the grounding of its 737 Max fleet after two crashes that killed nearly 350 people, reported zero orders for new jets in January and forecast the cargo business will likely contract in 2020.
FINALLY, RESPITE FOR ALL-AT-SEA CRUISE SHIP
Cambodia has agreed to let a cruise ship that has been turned away by five countries over fears that someone aboard may have the coronavirus dock and disembark its passengers, the Holland America Line said on Wednesday. For nearly two weeks, the MS Westerdam, a ship of healthy passengers, had been sailing throughout Asia after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam and the Philippines over fears that someone on the cruise could have the virus that has killed more than 1,100 people, almost all of them in China.
TWO RUSSIANS FLEE VIRUS QUARANTINE
Two Russian women who were kept in isolation for possible inflection by the new virus said they fled from their Russian hospitals this month because of uncooperative doctors, poor conditions and fear they would become infected. One patient jumped out of a hospital window to escape her quarantine and another managed to break out by disabling an electronic lock.russian health authorities haven’t commented on their complaints.
RECESSION FEARS RETURN TO GERMANY
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, has given the strongest warning yet that the nation is close to a recession as the coronavirus outbreak exacerbates its long-running industrial slump.
The lender now expects a slight contraction in the fourth quarter.
The virus outbreak, which disrupted supply lines to the global economy, piles on the problems for Germany