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COVID-19: Singapore confirms 18 new cases, including one in community

A family ride a multi-cycle along the jetty at Eastcoast park beach in Singapore on April 1, 2021. (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A family ride a multi-cycle along the jetty at Eastcoast park beach in Singapore on April 1, 2021. (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images) (ROSLAN RAHMAN via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 18 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of noon on Saturday (3 April), taking the country's total case count to 60,468.

There is one new case of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection and it is within the community.

The remaining 17 cases are imported and the cases had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.

Community case is a foreign domestic worker

The sole community case (Case 61508) is a 24-year-old Myanmar woman who is a foreign domestic worker. She arrived from Myanmar on 30 January and served SHN at a dedicated facility until 13 February, the MOH said.

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Her test taken on 12 February during SHN was negative for COVID-19. Following her SHN, she moved into a boarding house for foreign domestic workers while waiting for deployment to an employer, and had not left the boarding house from 13 February to 9 March," MOH said.

On 9 March, she started work at her employer’s residence. She is asymptomatic, and was detected when she was swabbed on 1 April as part of MOH’s investigation into another case (Case 61184).

"As an added precaution, MOH tested all close contacts of Case 61184, including those, like Case 61508, who had interacted with her outside of her infectious period. Case 61508’s test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 2 April, and she was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance," the ministry added.

Her serological test result is positive and she could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection, "but given that we are not able to definitively conclude that she had been infected before her arrival in Singapore, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure", the ministry said.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine if the two cases are linked but in the meantime, Case 61508 has been classified as a local unlinked case. All her identified close contacts, including her household members, have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.

Details of the 17 imported cases

Among the 17 imported cases:

  • Three are Singapore permanent residents who returned from Brazil, India and Ivory Coast.

  • Two are student's pass holders who arrived from India and the UAE.

  • Four are work pass holders who arrived from India.

  • Seven are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, of whom two are foreign domestic workers.

  • One is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Myanmar to visit his family member who is a Singapore permanent resident.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at two cases per week in the past two weeks, the MOH said. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at two cases per week in the past two weeks.

99% of total cases have recovered, 1 in ICU

With nine more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 60,185 cases – or 99.6 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 41 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while one of them is in the intensive care unit.

A total of 212 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from the 30 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Among the 180 confirmed cases reported from 28 March to 3 April, 55 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 85 have tested negative, and 40 serology test results are pending.

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