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18 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore; 2 in the community

Lunar New Year lantern decorations in Singapore's Chinatown 10 February 2021. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua via Getty)
Lunar New Year lantern decorations in Singapore's Chinatown 10 February 2021. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua via Getty)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (12 February) confirmed 18 new cases of COVID-19 in Singapore, taking the country’s total case count to 59,777.

Two of them are community cases, while the rest are imported. According to the MOH, there are no new cases in the dormitories.

The 16 imported cases had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice. (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.

Community cases linked to previous cases

The two locally transmitted infections today are linked to previous cases.

Case 60191 is a 33-year-old Singaporean man who is the son of Cases 601381 and 60192, and is currently unemployed. As he had been identified as a close contact of Case 60138, he was placed on quarantine at a dedicated facility on 10 February.

On 11 February, he was tested for COVID-19 even though he is asymptomatic. His test result came back positive on the same day, and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). His serology test result has come back positive.

Case 60192 is a 62-year-old Singaporean woman who is the spouse of Case 601381, and is a homemaker. She was placed on quarantine at a dedicated facility on 10 February when Case 60138 was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection.

She was tested for COVID-19 on the same day even though she is asymptomatic. Her test came back positive on 11 February, and she was conveyed in an ambulance to the NCID. Her serology test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing.

The ministry added that both Cases 60191 and 60192 do not use the TraceTogether app, and while they both have TraceTogether tokens, they did not carry their tokens with them. The MOH said that as "effective contact tracing is an important enabler to ringfence community transmission", "individuals are reminded to turn on their TraceTogether App or carry their TraceTogether token at all times so that we can quickly identify and isolate the close contacts of COVID-19 cases, and limit further infections".

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from four cases in the week before to eight cases in the past week, the ministry said. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from three cases in the week before to five cases in the past week.

6 foreign domestic workers among cases

Among the 16 imported cases:

  • Cases 60163, 60172 and 60179 are Singapore permanent residents who returned from India and Indonesia.

  • Case 60178 is a dependant’s pass holder who arrived from the UAE.

  • Case 60162 is a long-term visit pass holder who arrived from Indonesia.

  • Cases 60171, 60182, 60183 and 60184 are work pass holders who arrived from Myanmar, the Philippines and UAE.

  • Seven are work permit holders who arrived from India, Indonesia and Myanmar, of whom six (Cases 60173, 60174, 60175, 60176, 60177 and 60180) are foreign domestic workers.

Classification of Case 60162

The MOH said that Case 60162 is a long-term visit pass holder who arrived from Indonesia on 26 November 2020 and served SHN at a dedicated facility until 10 December. His swab done on 6 December during SHN was negative for COVID-19.

"He is asymptomatic, and was detected when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 10 February 2021 in preparation for his return to Indonesia. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, although the Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load," the ministry added. "His serological test result has also come back positive. He reported that before his trip to Singapore, he had interacted with his sibling in Indonesia who was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection in October 2020. Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported." He is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

99% of total cases have recovered, 1 in ICU

With 11 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Friday, 59,569 cases – or 99.6 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 31 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and one in the intensive care unit.

A total of 148 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 29 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

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