SINGAPORE, Jan 23 — A 26-year-old sales personnel at BS Industrial and Construction Supply is Singapore’s sole Covid-19 community case yesterday, bringing the number of infections for that cluster to eight.
In its update on the coronavirus situation here, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that the other 14 cases for the day were all imported — including a 29-year-old cabin crew member who works at Singapore Airlines (SIA).
The employee at BS Industrial and Construction Supply is a Malaysian woman who was placed on quarantine on January 18 after her colleague’s diagnosis.
The colleague, a 39-year-old permanent resident who was the first to be diagnosed in the cluster, was confirmed to be infected on January 18. The woman was tested on January 20 despite not having any symptoms and the result confirmed an infection the next day.
She was then taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
The woman’s serology test has since come back negative, MoH said, indicating that hers is likely a current infection.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has spiked from two in the week before to 21 in the past week.
The number of cases with no known links in the community has also gone up from two in the week before to five in the past week.
Imported cases
Of the 14 imported cases, 13 had already been placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore, MoH said. The remaining one was the SIA cabin crew member who had gone home after testing negative on arrival but later had symptoms.
The 14 cases are:
― Two Singaporeans and one permanent resident who returned from Malaysia, Mauritius and Myanmar
― One dependant’s pass holder who came from France
― Four work pass holders who had been to France, India and the United Kingdom, one of them being the SIA employee
― Three work permit holders who arrived from India and Indonesia, with one being a foreign domestic worker
― One short-term visit pass holder from India — a one-year-old female toddler — whose family member is here
― Two special pass holders who are seafarers. One of them was onboard a vessel from China and was isolated until his test result came back positive, while the second man had arrived onboard a vessel from Timor Leste
The SIA employee, a 29-year-old Indian national, had travelled to the United Kingdom for work between January 12 and 13 before she returned to Singapore on January 14.
She was tested on arrival here and her results came back negative that same day.
However, she developed a fever on January 17 and went to see a general practitioner.
She then lost her sense of smell on January 20 and was tested for the virus the next day.
“Her result came back positive for Covid-19 infection on January 22. She had mostly stayed at home from January 14 until she was conveyed to the hospital on January 22,” MoH said.
Update on remaining cases
The total number of infections in Singapore is now 59,250.
Of these, 58,983 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 24 yesterday.
There are still 41 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. One person is in intensive care.
Another 197 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-nine people have died from complications due to the disease. ― TODAY
