A Singapore court, on Friday, sentenced a woman to five months in prison for hiding her meetings with a friend from coronavirus contact tracers, fearing her family might think she was having an affair, reported AFP.

According to court documents, 65-year-old Oh Bee Hio, met close friend, 72-year-old Lim Kiang Hon, five times in the weeks prior to testing COVID-19 positive in February. She, however, deliberately withheld the information from the health ministry’s contact tracers.

Court documents said, “She did not want her family or Lim’s family to find out that they were going out so frequently, as she thought that their family and friends would suspect that they were in a romantic relationship and spread rumours about them being in an extra-marital affair.”

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Officials were able to find out about the meetings via parking records, CCTV footage, call records and credit card transactions.

Following her hospitalisation, Oh spoke to Lim on the phone and asked him to keep their outings secret. Lim then tested positive in March.

According to Judge Marvin Bay, Oh’s  reasons for withholding information were “selfish… within the pressing public interest need to control the pandemic.”

He said, “In this regard, the court must send a clear message that any act of withholding information likely to mislead contact tracers is totally unacceptable.”

Oh pleaded guilty to the charge of hindering contact tracing efforts.

The maximum punishment is a fine of Sg$10,000 ($7,500), six months imprisonment, or both.

Singapore initially kept COVID-19 in check through rigorous contact tracing, but the virus later swept through dormitories housing low-paid migrant workers.

The city has reported more than 58,800 virus infections, but a relatively low death toll of 29.