SINGAPORE, Feb 26 ― Five more patients who were infected by the Covid-19 coronavirus have been discharged from hospital yester, bringing the total number of those who have recovered to 58, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
So far, there have been 91 reported cases of infected patients in Singapore and the latest one was confirmed to have the virus on February 22 but was announced by MOH yesterday.
Case 91 is a 58-year-old Singaporean woman who did not go to China recently. She is among the five who have since been discharged from hospital, along with Case 77, a 35-year-old Singaporean man who was a contact of Case 50, a DBS bank employee who was discharged last week.
The other three recovered patients were Cases 58, 62 and 81, who were part of the Grace Assembly of God cluster.
MOH said that Case 91 is married to Case 83, a 54-year-old Singaporean man, and both did not travel to China recently. Husband and wife are linked to the Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster.
Through the use of a new testing method, which is able to detect past infections in someone who has recovered from it, the Singaporean couple were identified on Tuesday as the missing link between the Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster and the Grace Assembly of God cluster.
On January 19, a married couple from Wuhan, China (Cases 8 and 9) attended the Life Church and Missions Singapore church in Paya Lebar and came into contact with the Singaporean couple.
The Singaporean couple then went on to attend a Chinese New Year gathering on January 25 with Case 66, a 28-year-old Singaporean man who works at the Grace Assembly of God church.
Case 91 reported onset of symptoms on January 23 and had sought treatment at a general practitioner (GP) clinic on February 1, 6 and 10. As she had been identified as a contact of Case 66, she was referred by MOH to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases on February 18. By then, she had recovered from the infection.
Through the new testing method, results came back positive for Covid-19 on February 22 afternoon.
Before she was warded, she had mostly stayed home on Rivervale Drive in Sengkang.
Links between previous cases
Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases, MOH said. This was made possible with the assistance of the Singapore Police Force.
― Six of the locally transmitted confirmed cases (Cases 31, 33, 38, 83, 90 and 91), as well as Cases 8 and 9, are linked to The Life Church and Missions Singapore (146B Paya Lebar Road).
― These six cases are now linked to another 23 confirmed cases (Cases 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 80, 81, 84 and 88) who are connected to the Grace Assembly of God.
― Nine of the confirmed cases (Cases 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 34 and 40) are linked to Yong Thai Hang (24 Cavan Road), a health product shop off Lavender Street.
― Three of the confirmed cases (Cases 30, 36 and 39) are linked to the private business meeting held at the Grand Hyatt Singapore from January 20 to 22.
― Five of the confirmed cases (Cases 42, 47, 52, 56 and 69) are linked to the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.
Update on confirmed cases
MOH said that of the 33 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving.
Seven are in critical condition under intensive care.
Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing and as of yesterday noon, there have been 2,846 close contacts who have been quarantined.
Of these, 2,475 have completed their quarantine and 371 are still under quarantine.
Expect rise in numbers
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said that the number of new cases in Singapore has remained low over the past few days, but Singaporeans must be aware that the global situation remains dynamic.
“We cannot afford to be complacent,” he warned as he spoke about the rising number of cases in South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran.
“This means that the threat of importation of cases remain serious, and therefore (we) must expect to see the number of cases in Singapore increase over time as the virus spreads globally and regionally.”
As a result, Singapore will continue to adjust the risk assessments based on global and regional developments.
“We will not hesitate to take further decisive measures to keep Singapore safe,” he said. — TODAY
