According to a statement released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (8 March), a 26 year-old Singaporean male who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions around the world, has been infected with COVID-19.
He is the country’s 138th case.
The man is a close contact with Case 66 and family member of Case 83 and 91. All these three cases are linked to the cluster of The Life Church and Missions Singapore.
Due to his close contact with the three previous cases, he had been quarantined from 15 February to 6 March.
However, in the afternoon of his last day of quarantine (6 March), the man’s test results confirmed positive for COVID-19 infection.
After his quarantine of almost three weeks ended, the man who lives at Rivervale Drive, had visited SAFRA Punggol (9 Sentul Crescent).
He is currently being placed in isolation at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
The MOH stated that when it comes to contact tracing, the Ministry 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 contact 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 Sunday afternoon, MOH has confirmed and verified 12 more new cases of COVID-19 infection, bringing the number of cases in Singapore to 150.
Upon reading about the Singaporean man who visited SAFRA Punggol after his quarantine ended, many netizens slammed him for being irresponsible by leaving his house right after the quarantine period is over. Stating that he should be “fined and punished” for his act, they added in the Facebook page of Mothership that it’s logical for him to stay at home even though the quarantine period is over, given that the results of the test were still unknown.
A large number of online users questioned the effectiveness of 2 or 3 weeks of quarantine period. This is because the man was still tested positive for the coronavirus even after 3 weeks. As such, they urge the Government to increase the quarantine period and ensure that the test results should be out before the quarantine period is over.
Alvin SP Koe explained that there’s a high chance that Case 138 did not exhibit any signs and symptoms at the end of his quarantine period. As such, he suggested that the “Govt might need to extend the quarantine period to 30 days because the signs and symptoms might only show up later”.
