Yahoo Finance COVID-19: Singapore confirms 23 new cases, one in the community
SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 23 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of noon on Saturday (27 March), taking the country's total case count to 60,288.
Among them is one new community case.
The remaining 22 new cases are imported, with the cases being already put on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.
The sole case in the community, who is currently unlinked, is a 48-year-old female Singapore permanent resident who works as a part-time food packer at Sheera Pte Ltd (5 Kaki Bukit Road 1). Her job does not entail interaction with customers.
She is asymptomatic, and was detected when she took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 25 March in preparation for a trip to India. Her test result came back positive on 26 March, and she was conveyed via ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
The MOH said that she had earlier travelled to India in March 2020, and returned to Singapore on 11 December that year. She served SHN at a dedicated facility until 25 December and her test taken on 21 December during SHN was negative for COVID-19.
Another test conducted by the National Public Health Laboratory on 26 March was negative for COVID-19 infection, and her serological test result has come back positive. "She could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection, but given that we are not able to definitively conclude when she had been infected, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure," the ministry said.
Details of imported cases
Among the 22 imported cases:
One is a Singaporean and two permanent residents who returned from India and Kazakhstan.
The 49-year-old male Singaporean, who returned to Singapore from Kazakhstan on 11 March, served SHN at a dedicated facility until 25 March. "His on-arrival swab done on 11 March was negative for COVID-19, as was his test taken on 24 March during SHN. He developed a cough on the night of 24 March while serving SHN but did not report his symptom and went home on 25 March after his SHN ended," the MOH said.
On 26 March, he developed a fever and headache and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner's clinic, where he was tested for COVID-19. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day and he was conveyed to NCID.Three are dependant’s pass holders who arrived from the Philippines, South Africa and the US.
Three are student’s pass holders who arrived from India and Indonesia.
One is a work pass holder who arrived from India.
12 are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and the Philippines, of whom four are foreign domestic workers.
Overall, the ministry said, the number of new cases in the community has increased from none in the week before to two cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from none in the week before to two cases in the past week.
99% of total cases have recovered, 1 in ICU
With 10 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 60,113 cases – or 99.7 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 32 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while one of them is in the intensive care unit.
A total of 113 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 104 confirmed cases reported from 21 to 27 March, 38 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 46 have tested negative, and 20 serology test results are pending.
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