As of Monday noon (21 Dec), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 10 new cases of COVID-19 infection.
This brings the total number of infection cases to 58,432.
Amongst the new cases today, 8 are asymptomatic and were detected from screening and surveillance, while 2 were symptomatic.
There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. Case 58662 is a Singaporean who is asymptomatic and was detected when she was tested for COVID-19 before a scheduled cruise trip.
She was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases the following day when her test came back positive for COVID-19 infection. The National Public Health Laboratory has run further tests to verify that she is positive for COVID-19 infection. Her serological test result is pending.
She stays at Jurong West Street 93 and had been at work at Ruising Chemicals Pte Ltd (18 Boon Lay Way) before her test result was confirmed.
It was revealed that on 14 December, she and her family had gone on a Southern Islands tour with 2 other families, totalling 12 persons in all. Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant safety management measures.
Nine other cases are imported, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Amongst the 9 imported cases, 3 (Cases 58660, 58663 and 58665) are Singaporeans who returned from the UK and India. Another 3 are Work Permit holders (Cases 58659 and 58667) currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Indonesia and Myanmar, and a Student’s Pass holder (Case 58666) who arrived from Myanmar.
The remaining cases (Cases 58654, 58655 and 58661) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders who are crew members of separate vessels which arrived from Indonesia. They had not disembarked from their ships until they were conveyed to a quarantine facility or hospital.
Update on condition of confirmed cases
8 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,287 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
There are currently 46 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 70 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
29 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Investigations into 13 cases who served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore
As announced on 19 December, MOH is investigating 13 cases of COVID-19 infection amongst individuals who had served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore between 22 October and 11 November 2020.
MOH stated that it has completed special testing operations to test all individuals serving SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore, as well as staffs of the hotel.
In total, 394 persons serving SHN at the hotel have been swabbed. Of these, 391 were tested negative while 3 (Cases 58656, 58657 and 58658) were tested positive on 20 December and were immediately conveyed to the hospital via ambulance. As they have recent travel history, it is likely that these are imported cases who were infected while they were overseas.
Nevertheless, the National Public Health Laboratory will conduct whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis to determine if they could be linked to the 13 cases. These cases were announced by MOH on 20 December and included in the daily case count.
In total, the ministry has tested 571 staff of Mandarin Orchard Singapore, and 570 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results have come back negative for COVID-19 infection.
The serological tests of 8 more staff have come back positive, indicating likely past infections, in addition to the 3 announced yesterday. Epidemiological investigations of these 11 cases are in progress.
Singapore reports COVID-19 cases in accordance with international practice. Every case who tested positive through a PCR test and is assessed to be an acute infection is reported and included in our case count. We follow the World Health Organization’s criterion that only positive results from confirmatory tests (i.e. PCR tests) are included in the case count. This ensures consistency in reporting cases across countries.
The 11 cases whose serological tests have come back positive, but whose PCR test results are negative for COVID-19 infection, are therefore not included in the daily case count.
