COVID-19: 175 new cases detected in Singapore, total now at 55,104

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 175 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Sunday (9 August) noon, taking the country’s total case count to 55,104.

Of the cases, there is one community case, a Singaporean, and three imported cases. The remaining 171 cases are work permit holders currently under quarantine and workers tested in previous days due to dormitory clearance.

The community case is currently unlinked. Case 55169 was tested after she sought medical treatment for prolonged acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms.

Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that asymptomatic cases can be detected.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.

Among the three imported cases, one (Case 55143) is a Singaporean who returned to Singapore from India on 25 July. The remaining two (Cases 55138 and 55142) are work pass holders who are currently employed in Singapore. They arrived in Singapore from India on 26 July.

All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notices (SHNs) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHNs at dedicated facilities. They had been tested while serving their SHNs.

The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories on Friday, and some of the test results are still being processed.

There are currently about 23,500 workers who are still serving out their isolation period at quarantine facilities. These workers will be tested when their isolation ends, and MOH expects the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering down thereafter.

Of the new cases, 98 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Over 48,900 discharged; none in ICU

With 332 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Friday, 48,915 cases – some 89 per cent of the tally – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 135 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 6,027 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 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.

“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

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