Motorola workers quarantined in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Motorola was informed early this week that a night-shift worker had contracted the deadly pnemonia virus from a family member. It asked the night-shift workers not to report to work as a precaution. "A number of that total will be receiving the (quarantine) order, it's going to be a proportion of that total number," a spokeswoman with Motorola, the world's number two wireless phone maker, told Reuters.

The government had advised it would be issuing quarantine orders to only those night-shift employees who worked in the same area as the affected employee so some staff have since returned to work, she said. Local media said around 100 people had sat around the affected worker.

The city-state has nearly doubled the number of people quarantined to contain the virus that has killed more than 54 people worldwide, ordering 1,514 citizens to stay home and shut schools for 10 days, as the number of infections climbed. All are suspected of having close contact with people infected with acute severe respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has spread to parts of Asia, Europe and America since showing up in southern China late last year, where it left 31 people dead.

The United States urged Americans on Friday to postpone travel to parts of Asia because of the fast-spreading virus. The Singapore government said on Friday that a new wave of infections could potentially erupt as a woman who recently returned from Hong Kong and Beijing was also now sick with the virus.

A health ministry spokeswoman said on Saturday the government was rushing to reach passengers of a China Southern Airlines flight and a taxi driver who had been in contact with the woman. The number of people infected with the virus rose to 86 on Friday from 78 a day earlier, the government said. Those in serious condition rose to 12 from 11, it said.