2 New Cases of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

As of 8 February 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 2 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. Both cases are in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 20 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 18 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 4 were symptomatic. 

Summary of new cases

2.          Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 3 cases in the week before to 4 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 2 cases in the week before to 4 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 156 confirmed cases reported from 2 February to 8 February, 84 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 32 have tested negative, and 40 serology test results are pending.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 2

There are 2 cases in the community today who are currently unlinked.

Case 60051

Case 60051 is a 49 year-old male Singaporean who works as a bus driver employed by Cobb & Coach Services Pte Ltd. His job includes transporting individuals placed on SHN from Changi Airport to dedicated SHN facilities. His bus is disinfected after every trip.

He developed a runny nose on 31 January but did not seek medical attention. He was subsequently detected when he was tested on 5 February as part of Rostered Routine Testing (RRT). His pooled test result came back positive for COVID-19 on 6 February, and an individual test was done later that night at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). His earlier tests from RRT – the last being on 23 January – were negative for COVID-19 infection. His serology test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

Case 60052

Case 60052 is a 30 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Pass holder, and works as an engineer at Station Satcom Pte Ltd. As part of his job, he boards ships to install communications and IT equipment.

He had earlier been identified as a close contact of Case 59208[1], and was placed on quarantine from 13 January to 24 January. His swabs taken during quarantine on 13 January and 21 January were negative for COVID-19. Subsequent tests done as part of RRT – the last being on 29 January – were also negative for COVID-19.

He developed fatigue on 4 February, and a fever the next day but did not seek medical attention. On 5 February, he was tested for COVID-19 as part of RRT. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, and he was conveyed in an ambulance to NCID. While his serological test taken on 7 February has come back positive, this is assessed to be a recent infection as he is symptomatic, and the Ct value for his polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was low.

Case 60052 received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on 27 January, which accounts for his positive serology test as he has likely started producing antibodies following vaccination. As the vaccine does not contain live virus, he could not have been infected due to vaccination. It is possible for one to be infected just before or just after vaccination as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases, including their family members and co-workers, 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 cases could have been infected by them.

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today.

c) Imported cases: 20

Amongst the 20 imported cases,

• 4 (Cases 60050, 60060, 60061 and 60069) are Singaporeans and 3 (Cases 60065, 60067 and 60071) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from Canada, India and the UAE.

• 2 (Cases 60068 and 60074) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and the UAE.

• 3 (Cases 60063, 60064 and 60075) are Work Pass holders who arrived from India, Nepal and the Philippines.

• 7 are Work Permit holders who arrived from India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar, of whom 5 (Cases 60053, 60054, 60072, 60073 and 60078) are foreign domestic workers.

• 1 (Case 60062) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Malawi to visit her Singaporean relatives.

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

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.         51 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 59,484 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

6.              There are currently 44 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. 164 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.

[1] Case 59208 is a sea crew who arrived from Japan on board a vessel, and was tested for COVID-19 upon arrival. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 11 January.