1 New Case of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

          As of 12 March 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there is 1 new case of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The case is in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 9 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 9 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 1 was symptomatic.  

Summary of new cases

2.         Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at 3 cases per week in the past 2 weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 2 cases in the week before to 3 cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3.         Amongst the 73 confirmed cases reported from 6 March to 12 March, 39 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 29 have tested negative, and 5 serology test results are pending.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 1

There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. 

Case 60831 is a 36 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Pass holder. He arrived from India on 16 January and served SHN at a dedicated facility until 30 January. His test taken on 29 January during SHN was negative for COVID-19. He works as an IT Engineer at Deutsche Bank but has been working from home since his arrival in Singapore. 

He developed a runny nose on 1 March and sought medical treatment at a General Practitioner clinic on the same day. As he declined to be tested for COVID-19, he was given 5 days of medical leave and advised to return for a test if he did not recover. He was subsequently detected on 11 March when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test in preparation for his trip to India. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day, and he was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance. His serological test result has come back positive, which indicates a likely past infection. 

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case, including his household contacts, have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases. We will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the case could have been infected by them. 

We strongly urge everyone to play their part to reduce the risk of transmission. Those who are advised by their doctor to be tested for COVID-19 should do so, even if they are showing early/mild symptoms. 

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today. 

c) Imported cases: 9

Amongst the 9 imported cases, 

• 1 (Case 60850) is a Student’s Pass holder who arrived from Indonesia.
• 2 (Cases 60830 and 60851) are Work Pass holders who arrived from Indonesia and Switzerland.
• 4 (Cases 60837, 60840, 60842 and 60848) are Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia and the Philippines, all of whom are foreign domestic workers.
• 2 (Cases 60826 and 60827) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders who arrived from Cambodia and Indonesia. They were already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment. 

They had all already been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN. 

4.    Please refer to the Annexes and MOH’s daily Situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report) for details. 

Update on condition of confirmed cases

5.      11 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 59,950 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

6.          There are currently 21 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 80 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19. 29 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
12 MARCH 2021