The South East Asian financial hub of Singapore has been one of the worst-hit countries by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outside of mainland China, recording 72 cases, with five new cases reported on February 15.

The nation has seen a negative effect on its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2020, which has taken the impact of the coronavirus into account, with DBS, the city-state’s largest bank, downgrading the country’s growth rate for 2020 to 0.9% from 1.4% on February 7.

This has reportedly surpassed the economic hit resulting from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak which affected the country in 2003.

According to Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the city nation will possibly see a recession soon.

Over 71,204 novel coronavirus cases have been recorded worldwide, with the vast majority reported in mainland China.

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