54 new infected cases of COVID-19; Highest number of new cases till date

As of Monday (23 March 2020), 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 54 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore — making a total of 509 infection cases thus far.

The 48 imported cases had travel history to Europe, North America and ASEAN. All except one were returning residents and Long Term Pass holders. Six cases are currently unlinked, and contact tracing is ongoing.

This announcement is the highest increase of new cases till date.

The Singapore government has earlier announced that it will bar all short-term visitors from entering or transiting through Singapore, in view of the heightened risk of importation of COVID-19 cases into Singapore.

This will take effect from today at 2359 hours.

To date, a total of 152 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospital. Of the 355 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. 15 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Two cases have earlier passed away on 21 March from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

Update on contact tracing for confirmed cases

Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing. 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 23 March 2020, 12pm, MOH has identified 8,351 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 2,529 are currently quarantined, and 5,822 have completed their quarantine.