281 More Cases Discharged, 242 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

                   As of 7 August 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 242 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows: 

a)    Imported cases: 6 (2 Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents, 2 Work Pass holders, 1 Dependant’s Pass holder, 1 Long-Term Visit Pass holder)
 
All 6 imported cases arrived from India between 25 July and 27 July. Amongst them, 2 (Cases 54872 and 54877) are Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents returning to Singapore. Another 2 cases (Cases 54873 and 54874) are Work Pass holders who are currently employed in Singapore. The remaining cases are a Dependant’s Pass holder (Case 54761) and a Long-Term Visit Pass holder (Case 54771).
 
All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities. They had been tested while serving their SHN.
 
b)    Cases in the community: 1  (1 Singaporean)
 
There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. Case 54870 was detected under our enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor. This allows us to identify infected individuals early and to quickly contain further spread. Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close 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.
 
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 3 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 2 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of 1 case per day in the past 14 days. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.
 
c)    Cases residing in dormitories: 235
 
The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories, except for a few standalone blocks in the dormitories that serve as quarantine facilities. The workers in these quarantine facilities will be tested when their isolation ends, and we expect the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering down thereafter.
 
2.               Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report). Please refer to Annex A for the summary of the confirmed cases.

3.               Of the new cases, 99% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4.               In the past week (31 July to 6 August), MOH has uncovered links for 1 previously unlinked case in the community.

5.               Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. Please refer to Annex B and Annex C for details.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

6.               281 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 48,312 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.               There are currently 124 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 6,334 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. 27 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

 
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
7 AUGUST 2020