(2nd LD) Additional case confirmed after trip to Singapore, total at 18 in S. Korea

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SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday confirmed two more cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total to 18, with one of the latest cases involving a patient who had returned from Singapore.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said a 38-year-old South Korean man who recently visited Singapore for work and came into contact with an infected Malaysian tested positive for the virus.

The country's 17th case was informed that one of the people he had contacted in Singapore was infected with the virus, so he visited a clinic in South Korea on Tuesday and was confirmed to have contracted the illness, according to the public health agency.

The 18th case was a 21-year-old South Korean woman who is the daughter of the 16th patient who had returned from a trip to Thailand on Jan. 19 but moved freely for around two weeks before she was diagnosed with the virus.

The KCDC said it is tracing the steps of the country's all confirmed cases to determine where they went and the people they may have met, amid growing concerns over further human transmission.

The public health agency said earlier that it has quarantined 129 people to test for the novel coronavirus and is checking 1,318 who came into contact with an infected person for signs of the illness.

The KCDC said that as of early Wednesday, the virus that is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China, has claimed some 480 lives, while infecting over 23,000 people in 27 countries.

yonngong@yna.co.kr
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