Three additional cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore; two new clusters identified

The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Wednesday (12 Feb) evening that three additional cases of Covid-19 infection have been confirmed. This makes the total number of infection cases in Singapore to be 50 so far.

Newly confirmed cases

Case 48 is a 34 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China but was in Malaysia on 26 January 2020. He is currently warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Case 49 is a 46 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

Case 50 is a 62 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

To date, a total of 15 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospital. Of the 35 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving.Eight are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Update on suspect cases

As of 12 February 2020, 12pm, 638 of the suspect cases have tested negative for COVID-19, and 50 have tested positive. Test results for the remaining 125 cases are pending.
Update on contact tracing for confirmed cases

With the assistance of the Singapore Police Force, MOH uncovered two new clusters of infection through epidemiological investigations and contact tracing.

Along with the three prior mentioned, the five clusters are:

• The Life Church and Missions Singapore (146B Paya Lebar Road) —  (Cases 8, 9, 31, 33 and 38).
• Cluster associated with Yong Thai Hang (24 Cavan Road) — (Cases 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 34 and 40)
• Private business meeting held at Grand Hyatt Singapore from 20 to 22 January. — (Cases 30, 36 and 39)
• Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site. (Cases 42 and 47)
• The Grace Assembly of God. (Cases 48 and 49)

Investigations on these clusters are ongoing.

Contact tracing is underway for the other eight locally transmitted cases to establish any links to previous cases or travel history to mainland China. Case 44 was a contact of Cases 13 and 26.

Once identified, MOH will closely monitor all close contacts. As a precautionary measure, they will be quarantined for 14 days from their last exposure to the patient. In addition, all other identified contacts who have a low risk of being infected will be under active surveillance, and will be contacted daily to monitor their health status.
As of 12 February 2020, 12pm, MOH has identified 1,090 close contacts. Of the 984 who are still in Singapore, 961 have been contacted and are being quarantined or isolated. Efforts are ongoing to contact the remaining 23 close contacts.