As of Saturday noon (16 Jan), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed an additional 24 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore.
This brings the total number of infection cases to 59,083.
Amongst the new cases today, 19 are asymptomatic, and were detected from proactive screening and surveillance, while 5 were symptomatic.
There are five new new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection.
“Based on our investigations so far, 4 are in the community, and 1 resides in a dormitory,” said MOH.
There are 4 cases in the community today, of whom 2 are currently unlinked and 2 are linked to previous cases.
Case 59340 is a 39 year-old male Singaporean who works at Singapore Scouts Association (1 Bishan Street 12), handling mainly administrative work in the office. He is also a part-time bus driver with Westpoint Transit who plies specific routes for Cameron (Singapore) Pte Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline Tuas.
He developed a fever on 11 January, and sought medical treatment from a general practitioner via tele-consultation, and again at a polyclinic on 13 January where he was tested for COVID-19 as part of the authority’s enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor.
He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 15 January and was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection. He had not gone to work after onset of symptoms.
Case 59351 is a 39 year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of Case 59340. She developed acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms on 13 January and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic the next day. She was referred to a polyclinic to take a COVID-19 test on the same day. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 15 January and she was conveyed in an ambulance to NCID. Her serological test result is pending.
She works as an administrative officer at OCBC Tampines Centre One (11 Tampines Central 1) but does not interact with customers. Her last day at work was on 8 January, before onset of symptoms.
Case 59343 is a 33 year-old male Chinese national who is a Work Permit holder. He works as a food processing worker at Golden Bridge Foods Manufacturing Pte Ltd (30 Senoko South Road).
He developed a cough on 7 January and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic. He was swabbed but his test result came back negative for COVID-19 on 8 January. He stayed at home on medical leave between 7 January and 12 January, and went back to work on 13 January.
However, he developed a fever on 14 January and sought medical treatment at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where he was again tested for COVID-19. This time, his test result came back positive on 15 January and he was conveyed in an ambulance to NCID. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Case 59347 is a 28 year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of Case 59280 . She had been identified as his close contact earlier and was placed on quarantine on 13 January.
She developed ARI symptoms on 14 January and was tested for COVID-19. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 15 January and was conveyed to NCID in an ambulance. Her serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
She works as a Prison Staff Officer at Singapore Prison Service but does not interact with Prison inmates. Due to workplace safe management measures, she has mainly been working from home during this period.
There is 1 case residing in a dormitory who is currently unlinked. Case 59350 is a 37 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Permit holder. He resides at Tuas South Dormitory (1 Tuas South Street 12) and works at Chevron Oronite Pte Ltd (21 Sakra Road) as a thermal insulator installer.
He is asymptomatic, and was detected when his test taken on 14 January as part of Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) came back positive for COVID-19 infection. His earlier tests from RRT – the last being on 17 December – were negative for COVID-19 infection. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases, including their family and household members and co-workers, have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that the authority can detect asymptomatic cases
In addition, there are 19 new imported cases, who had been placed on Stay-Home Notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Amongst the 19 imported cases, 1 (Case 59339) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from India.
3 (Cases 59329, 59331 and 59332) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from the UAE and India.
2 (Cases 59327 and 59330) are Student’s Pass holders who arrived from India and France.
5 (Cases 59328, 59337, 59341, 59342 and 59348) are Work Pass holders who arrived from India, Japan, Spain and the UAE.
6 are Work Permit holders who arrived from India and Myanmar, of whom 3 (Cases 59333, 59335 and 59336) are foreign domestic workers.
1 (Case 59346) is a sea crew holding a Special Pass who arrived from Brunei onboard a vessel on 5 January and had not disembarked. He was tested for COVID-19, and conveyed to the hospital when his result came back positive.
1 (Case 59345) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Myanmar for a job placement.
Cases 59348 and 59349 are Work Permit holders who arrived from India on 25 December 2020 and served SHN at dedicated facilities until 8 January 2021. Their swabs done on 5 January during SHN were negative for COVID-19, and subsequent tests on 9 January and 11 January were also negative. Their tests on 14 January came back positive for COVID-19 infection, although the Ct values were very high, which are indicative of low viral loads.
Their serological test results have also come back positive. Given that these indicate likely past infection, the authority have classified these cases as imported. They are likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.
Update on condition of confirmed cases
13 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,784 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
There are currently 54 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 216 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.
