In response to queries by Stomp, the police said they were alerted to the case of unnatural death at 2.13pm.
The man was found lying motionless and was pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the deceased was discovered at the staircase landing on the fifth floor of the carpark.
Numerous police officers and medical staff in protective clothing were spotted at the scene until around 6pm.
Shin Min understands that the man had apparently been facing financial troubles. He allegedly used a knife to stab his chest and abdomen, and eventually succumbed to his injuries.
SINGAPORE: DBS on Wednesday (Feb 12) confirmed an employee had been infected with the novel coronavirus, prompting the bank to take precautionary measures and have some employees at Marina Bay Financial Centre work from home.
The infected employee was tested on Tuesday and the bank was informed of the confirmation on Wednesday morning, said DBS in a media statement.
As a precaution, employees in the affected office space were told to work from home.
“As a precautionary measure, as at 12pm today, we ensured that all employees on the affected floor at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3 vacated the premises, to work from home,” it said.
The bank said it was conducting contact tracing with all employees and other people the infected person may have come into contact with.
DBS’ office at MBFC Tower 3. (Photo: Gayathiri Chandramohan)
The affected office space and common areas are being deep cleaned and disinfected according to the health ministry’s guidelines, it added.
“During this difficult time, the bank will be providing this employee and his family with every support and guidance,” said DBS.
A total of 300 staff members at level 43 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre have been “evacuated” as a precautionary measure and will work from home, the bank told staff members in an internal memo seen by CNA.
All bank employees will receive a “personal hygiene and protection care pack with effect from next week.
The pack will include a thermometer, hand sanitiser and vitamin C, said DBS.
It said it was also rolling out webinars for medical health professionals to update employees and provide further information, and also had a medical helpline and services to virtual doctors.
The bank has also put in place plans for employees to work from home or from split sites “to ensure minimal disruption to operations”.
Long lines had formed this week to enter some offices in the financial district as employers started screening workers for temperature. Warnings by building management of cases in some downtown office buildings have also been widely shared on social media.
A total of 47 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Singapore so far.
As of Tuesday, nine of these have since recovered.
The virus, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has since spread to more than 20 countries.
More than 1,000 people have died and more than 44,000 people have been infected, the vast majority in China.
SINGAPORE: The discrimination of some healthcare workers due to suspicions of close contact with coronavirus cases is “disgraceful”, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Amrin Amin has said.
“There’s one issue that I would like to comment on, which is on discrimination faced by our healthcare officers,” he told reporters on Wednesday (Feb 12).
“We have read reports of nurses being asked not to take the lift, take the stairs instead. Nurses have been asked to leave the train … Ambulance drivers being asked not to buy food, so as not to contaminate others,” said Mr Amrin.
“These are very unfortunate incidents, and it’s very disgraceful.”
Mr Amrin’s comments came after several reports of healthcare workers being ostracised in public due to concerns over the new virus.
“It does not reflect the best of us Singaporeans,” he continued. “In times or crisis, we must stand together and stand united, and these are people, ordinary men and women who have served Singapore in this time.
“Some of them have volunteered their services, come in and stepped up. I think they deserve our support and encouragement.
“I urge all Singaporeans to encourage them and to recognise their contributions in this moment.”
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Amrin Amin speaks to ambulance first responders on Feb 12, 2020. (Photo: Aqil Haziq Mahmud)
Mr Amrin urged Singaporeans to “condemn the disgraceful acts” by a minority, and make it clear that these acts do not represent Singaporeans.
“We are better than that,” he added. “And we will show Singapore and the world who we really are.”
Mr Amrin said the public should not be alarmed as all emergency medical crew will wear personal protective equipment when responding to all calls, not just suspected coronavirus cases.
“The ambulance, after conveying a suspect case, will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, so the public should rest assured,” he stated.
Mr Amrin was speaking at the Singapore Civil Defence Force headquarters where he met frontline officers who had attended suspected coronavirus cases.
“I’m here to say thank you to the men and women who have bravely served Singapore in this moment of need,” he said.
“They have stepped up. Many of them have said they are also anxious, but despite that they continue to perform duties required of them and I think they deserve to be honoured.”
SINGAPORE: Temperature screening at office buildings could be up to five times faster with a new artificial intelligence-powered system by the Integrated Health Information System (IHiS) and healthcare technology company Kronikare.
The iThermo can screen eight to 10 people per minute, as compared to two to three people for manual screening, said Mr Chua Chee Yong, head of emerging services and capabilities at IHiS.
“(For manual screening), it ranges from 20 to 30 seconds to take a reading … That’s the maximum they can do,” he said.
“For the iThermo, we’re looking at about eight to 10 (screenings) per minute.”
Long queues have begun to form outside office buildings across Singapore in recent days after heightened precautionary measures were introduced to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Queues for temperature screening were reported to last as long as 40 minutes at places like Suntec City.
Based off Kronikare’s Wound Scanner, the iThermo was developed in two weeks, and has been on trial at the IHiS headquarters and the St Andrew’s Community Hospital since Monday.
The 25cm by 12cm by 5cm iThermo comprises a smartphone camera, a thermal camera, and a laser camera, which can be mounted on a stand. Weighing 650g, it is easily deployed at entrances of places like office buildings and shopping malls.
Compared to manual screening, iThermo will be able to “reduce scanning fatigue, manpower and time”, said IHiS CEO Bruce Liang. Thus far, results have been “encouraging”, he said, noting that IHiS had received inquiries from healthcare institutions, banks and the retail sector.
It is also cheaper and more portable than high-end screeners deployed at airports.
“This is meant to bridge the gap between manual screening and the high-end screeners,” said Mr Chua of IHiS.
The iThermo will be rented out for S$1,000 a month. Fifty units will be available from mid-February and another 50 from the end of February.
HOW IT WORKS
The three cameras work to screen the body temperature of an individual, adjusted for ambient temperature and distance.
Unlike manual screening, iThermo can screen up to 10 people in a single frame. Low beeps indicate that the temperature has been recorded. If someone with a fever passes through, the system will alert a staff member with a higher-pitched sound.
Ithermo uses a mobile phone with thermal and laser camera and an AI app to detect people who may have fever as they walk by. (Photo: Hanidah Amin)
The system can best screen individuals from a distance of 1m to 3m of the scanner. It can also screen individuals wearing hats, surgical masks and spectacles.
According to chief technology officer and co-founder of Kronikare, Hossein Nejati, the iThermo has a 100 per cent accuracy in screening patients with body temperatures of over 37.3 degrees when compared with a forehead thermometer during the proof-of-concept stage.
The system received a Class A certification from the Health Sciences Authority and Kronikare has ramped up the production of the iThermo.
SINGAPORE – About 300 DBS employees were evacuated from their office at Marina Bay Financial Centre on Wednesday (Feb 12), after an employee was confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.
An e-mail seen by The Straits Times sent at 12.55pm on Wednesday said that there was a confirmed case at the DBS Asia Central office on the 43rd storey of Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) Tower 3.
The 300 members of staff working on the same floor were evacuated as a precautionary measure and have been told to work from home for the time being.
The e-mail said that contact tracing is currently being conducted to ensure those who were in contact with the affected employee are informed.
Office premises, including common areas like lift lobbies and toilets, are also being deep cleaned as a precaution.
Employees on a leave of absence will receive basic grocery packs, and all staff have access to a medical helpline, webinars as well as virtual doctors.
The same e-mail said that on Sunday, a confirmed case had also been detected at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1.
SINGAPORE: Two people were arrested and S$73,000 worth of drugs seized by officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in an operation on Tuesday (Feb 11).
In a press release on Wednesday, the CNB said that a 46-year-old Singaporean man and a 40-year-old Malaysian man were arrested in Sengkang.
On Tuesday afternoon, the CNB officers saw the Singaporean man, a suspected drug trafficker, entering a car driven by the Malaysian suspect in Compassvale Drive.
The pair then drove to Rivervale Drive, where the Singaporean alighted. He was arrested shortly after.
CNB officers also tailed and intercepted the car along Rivervale Lane and arrested the Malaysian suspect. About 267g of Ice, wrapped in two black bundles, was found in the car.
A car where about 267g of Ice was found in an operation by the Central Narcotics Bureau on Feb 11, 2020. (Photo: CNB)
The Singaporean suspect was then escorted by CNB officers to his hideout in Compassvale Drive, where about 440g of heroin, 116g of Ice, 4g of cannabis, 110 Erimin-5 tablets, 102 Ecstasy tablets and a bottle of methadone were found within the unit.
The amount of heroin seized is enough to feed the addiction of 210 abusers for a week. The amount of Ice seized is enough to feed the addiction of 220 abusers for a week.
Investigations into the drug activities of both suspects are ongoing.
“CNB will continue to keep up the pressure on drug offenders through regular sustained operations, to keep the streets of Singapore safe from drugs,” said CNB in its release.
At least in layman eyes, Hong Kong looks like it should be far more vulnerable than Singapore to the spread of the coronavirus.
After all, it has 13 border crossings with mainland China, where the disease is thought to have originated in a market in Wuhan, Hubei province, while Singapore is more than 3,500km away.
So why is it then that the two places have such a similar number of infections, with Hong Kong only surpassing Singapore’s count on Tuesday, when figures as of 8pm showed 49 confirmed cases (and one death) in Hong Kong and 47 confirmed cases in Singapore?
Some experts suggest the answer is, at least in part, due to standards of detection.
Health care experts say the Singapore government’s approach of actively weeding out those affected could explain its relatively high number of cases, while Hong Kong’s relatively low number might mean there could be silent carriers within the community.
Singapore is bracing for the novel coronavirus to have a greater impact on its tourism industry than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, as it forecasts a fall in tourism arrivals of up to 30 per cent this year.
As Sars upended global travel and kept people indoors in 2003, the island nation suffered a 19 per cent year-on-year drop in visitor arrivals.
For 2020, Singapore is estimating a daily loss of 18,000 to 20,000 international arrivals, according to the Singapore Tourism Board.
Much of this is expected to come from a reduction in Chinese tourists following Singapore’s restrictions on travel from mainland China, but the Southeast Asian nation is also feeling the impact of leisure and business travellers’ decision to give Asia a wide berth.
Singapore Tourism Board chief executive Keith Tan said the drop could “very well increase” depending on how the outbreak unfolds, adding that tourism receipts would likely fall at a similar rate to arrivals.
Singapore recorded $27.1 billion in tourism spending last year, $3.2 billion of which came from its 3.6 million Chinese visitors.
SINGAPORE: The number of personal mobility device (PMD)-related fires almost doubled in 2019, annual statistics released by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) showed on Wednesday (Feb 12).
There were 102 fires involving PMDs last year, a “sharp increase” from the 52 incidents in 2018, SCDF said. This figure has steadily increased since 2015, when only one PMD-related fire was reported.
On the other hand, power-assisted bicycles (PAB)-related fires went down from 22 cases in 2018 to 13 cases last year.
Fires involving PMDs and PABs caused 46 injuries in 2019, a 77 per cent spike from the 26 injuries in 2018. This includes one fatality last year, when a 40-year-old man who was rescued from a PMD-related fire in Bukit Batok died in hospital.
The SCDF highlighted that in 2019, almost 70 per cent of such fires occurred in homes.
“SCDF urges members of the public, especially PMD owners, to be vigilant when handling their devices as fires involving PMDs and PABs can result in casualties and serious damage to property,” it said.
The burnt wreck of a personal mobility device (PMD) that caught fire while it was charging at Block 715 Clementi West Street 2 on Dec 5, 2019. (Photo: Facebook/Singapore Civil Defence Force)
Calling the increase in such fires an “area of concern”, SCDF said it would continue to highlight the related fire safety risks and educate the public on preventive measures through social and mainstream media.
“All owners of non-UL2272 certified PMDs should also dispose of their devices at designated disposal points,” it added.
FIRES, CAUSES AND INJURIES
Overall, SCDF responded to 2,862 fire calls in 2019, an 8 per cent increase from the year before.
SCDF said dropped light cases remains the leading cause of fires, accounting for 37 per cent of all fires last year. Electrical origin fires were the second highest.
Dropped light refers to the indiscriminate disposal of lit materials, like lit cigarette butts that were not completely extinguished, charcoal embers and lit incense sticks.
Fires in residential premises accounted for 41 per cent of total fire calls. A majority of these were unattended cooking fires, followed by discarded item fires and household contents fires.
“SCDF would like to remind members of the public not to leave their cooking unattended, and not to discard items at the common areas such as lift lobbies, common corridors and staircase landings,” it said.
“Such discarded items not only pose a fire risk but may obstruct people who are evacuating the area during an emergency.”
A fire broke out on Aug 12, 2019 near East Coast Park. (Photo: Twitter/@chris3961)
Another 42 per cent occurred in non-building places like vegetation and vehicles.
While the latter decreased by 12 per cent, the number of vegetation fires in 2019 increased by 50 per cent to 883 cases. “This was largely due to the sustained dry weather between January and March 2019 as well as between July and September 2019,” SCDF said.
SCDF said it will address this increase by continuing to work closely with the Wildlife Task Force, comprising members from relevant agencies like the National Environment Agency and National Parks Board.
“Patrols at fire hot spots will also be increased during dry periods to detect possible fire risks and promptly attend to any fire occurrences,” it said.
Finally, the remaining 17 per cent of fire calls occurred in non-residential premises, including commercial, industrial as well as social and communal premises.
SCDF said there were 142 fire injuries in 2019, a 60 per cent increase from the year before. Sixty per cent of these were smoke inhalation cases, while the remaining were burns. The majority of the fire injuries had occurred in residential buildings.
A fire near Lim Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery on Mar 4, 2019. (Photo: SCDF)
FIRE ENFORCEMENT
On the enforcement front, SCDF said it conducted 13,397 checks in 2019, an 8 per cent decrease from the year before. It also issued 2,487 Fire Hazard Abatement Notices and 2,045 Notices of Fire Safety Offences in 2019.
The most common fire hazards were non-functioning exit signs or emergency lights, followed by non-maintenance of firefighting equipment and the obstruction of an exit or fire engine accessway.
The most common fire safety violation was the unauthorised change of use of premises, which would render existing fire safety measures inadequate, followed by unauthorised fire safety works and the unlicensed storage or transportation of petroleum and flammable material.
SCDF said 123 fire safety violations were prosecuted in court in 2019. One company was fined S$6,000 for changing part of its premises to an office and storage area without approval, and erecting a non-approved partition structure.
“SCDF takes any non-compliance with fire safety regulations seriously and will not hesitate to take firm action against those who do not make prompt rectifications despite warnings and fines,” it stated.
EMERGENCY CALLS
Calls to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) continued to increase. SCDF responded to 191,468 EMS calls in 2019, a 2.1 per cent increase from the year before. This figure represents an average of about 520 calls a day, and has been increasing since 1998.
Non-emergency and false alarm calls remain a concern, SCDF said. It pointed out that there were 17,626 such calls last year, making up nine per cent of the total. This means its ambulance personnel responded to an average of 48 non-emergency and false alarm calls every day.
“While this was a decrease of 1.8 per cent from 2018, non-emergency and false alarm cases still required the deployment of SCDF resources which could otherwise have been dispatched to attend to emergency cases which could be life-threatening,” it stated.
“SCDF will continue to raise public awareness of the differences between emergency and non-emergency cases as part of SCDF’s intensive public education efforts on its tiered EMS response framework, to bring down the numbers of such calls.”
Most kids of the ’90s and early 2000s will be more than familiar with Neopets, the browser-based online game which lets you raise your very own adorable virtual pet. Well, if you are one of the many who grew up with the game (us included) then rejoice as a Neopets animated TV series will be happening.
Singapore-based production studio Beach House Pictures is teaming up with JumpStar Games Inc. in an exclusive deal to develop the first-ever Neopets animated TV series.
As part of the deal, Beach House Pictures will be tapping onto its parent company Blue Ants Studio’s animation team in Canada to help develop new characters and stories for the animated series.
“Beach House Pictures is developing new characters and stories,” Beach House Pictures said in a news release, “tapping into the Blue Ant Studios animation team in Canada, to expand the storytelling and bring added dimension to the Neopets kid- and family-friendly brand.”
First launched in 1999, Neopets has delighted generations of kids since with its multitude of minigames, items to collect, shops, and forums where kids could make friends from around the globe.
