SINGAPORE, May 6 — The sole Covid-19 case in the community yesterday (May 5) is a 59-year-old Singaporean man who works as a trailer truck driver at Brani Terminal and Pasir Panjang Terminal.
In its update on the coronavirus situation in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that the man is linked to three confirmed cases who had all been at the Pasir Panjang Terminal for work.
The four have now formed the latest Covid-19 cluster here. The first detected case from the cluster is a 23-year-old male Indian national who is employed by Seafront Support Company as what is known in the marine industry as a lashing specialist. The job entails going onboard ships to secure and unsecure containers before the port cranes move the containers.
MoH said: “Our investigations found that (four previously confirmed cases) had been at Pasir Panjang Terminal for work, and transmission could have occurred at the terminal.”
As a precautionary measure, the ministry will test port workers employed by PSA Singapore who had been deployed there.
The Singaporean man is employed by GKE Express Logistics and was last at work on May 1.
He developed a fever and sore throat the next day and had remained at home.
On May 3, the man sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic and was tested for Covid-19.
His test result came back positive for the disease on May 4 and he was taken to Alexandra Hospital, where his serology test result for past infection is pending.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has risen from 13 in the week before to 62 in the past week.
The number of cases with no known links in the community has also gone up from six in the week before to seven in the past week.
Imported cases
There were 15 imported cases of Covid-19 recorded yesterday and all had been placed on stay-home notice upon their arrival here, MoH said.
They were:
― Five Singaporeans and two permanent residents who returned from India, Indonesia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and United States
― One dependant’s pass holder who came from India and who has a Singaporean family member
― Two student’s pass holders who arrived from India and Myanmar. MoH said that they were already studying in Singapore before, and had returned to their home country, or had been given a place for their course earlier
― Three work pass holders who came from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand
― Two work permit holders who arrived from the Philippines and Sri Lanka, one of whom is a foreign domestic worker
MoH stressed that the imported cases who had arrived from the Indian sub-continent had already come into Singapore before the restrictions on travel from there were imposed recently.
Update on remaining cases
The total number of infections in Singapore is now 61,268.
Of these, 60,844 people have fully recovered and been discharged, including 21 on Wednesday.
There are still 131 patients in hospitals. Of these, most are stable or improving, and two are in critical condition.
Another 262 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.
Thirty-one people have died from complications due to the disease. ― TODAY
