5 New Cases of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

     As of 31 December 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 5 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The cases are in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 25 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 25 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 5 were symptomatic. 

Summary of new cases

2.   Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, with a total of 7 cases in the past week. Of these, 4 are linked to previous cases and 3 are currently unlinked. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 5
There are 5 cases in the community today, of whom 1 is currently unlinked.Cases 58842 and 58843Cases 58842 and 58843 are family members of Case 58810 [1] who live in the same household. Case 58842 is a 46 year-old female Singapore Permanent Resident who works as a freelance florist at her place of residence at Ghim Moh Road. She had been identified as a close contact of Case 58810 on 29 December, and placed on home quarantine on 30 December. She developed symptoms on the same day and was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in an ambulance, where she was tested. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day.Case 58843 is a 14 year-old female Singapore Permanent Resident who had been identified as a close contact of Case 58810 on 29 December, and was placed on home quarantine on 30 December with Case 58842. She was conveyed to NCID with Case 58842 on 30 December, and tested. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 31 December, and she also started to develop symptoms on the same day. She is a student of Raffles Girls’ School, and her last day in school was on 23 December.Case 58817Case 58817 is a 55 year-old male Singaporean who works as a Harbour Pilot at PSA Marine Pte Ltd (70 West Coast Ferry Road). His work entails going onboard vessels to navigate them through congested waters.He is asymptomatic, and was detected from our Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors on 28 December. His test came back positive on 30 December and he was conveyed to NCID in an ambulance. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection. His earlier tests from RRT – the last being on 12 December – had been negative for COVID-19 infection.He stays at Marine Crescent and often visited his relatives who stay in a neighbouring block. It was revealed that on 13 December, he had visited Parkway Parade with 7 other individuals. Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant prevailing safe management measures.Cases 58840 and 58841Case 58840 is a 79 year-old female Singaporean who is a retiree and Case 58841 is a 50 year-old male Singaporean who is currently unemployed. They are relatives of Case 58817, and reside at Marine Crescent. On 28 December, both cases developed acute respiratory infection symptoms but did not seek medical treatment. On 30 December, they were both placed on quarantine as they had been identified as close contacts of Case 58817. As they were already symptomatic, they were conveyed to NCID in ambulances, and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 infection.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 case could have been infected by them.

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0There are no cases residing in dormitories today.
c) Imported cases: 25Amongst the 25 imported cases,

• 2 (Cases 58828 and 58839) are Singaporeans and 3 (Cases 58819, 58820 and 58832) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from the UK, Indonesia and India.

• 2 (Cases 58823 and 58831) Work Pass holders who arrived from the Philippines and India.

• 14 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Philippines and Myanmar, of whom 9 (Cases 58821, 58822, 58824, 58825, 58826, 58827, 58834, 58835 and 58836) are foreign domestic workers.

• 1 (Case 58814) is a Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from India.

• 1 (Case 58830) is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from India.

• 1 (Case 58837) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from India to visit her Singaporean spouse.

• 1 (Case 58838) is a Special Pass holder who is a crew member of a ship which arrived from Hong Kong. He had not disembarked from the ship until he was conveyed to a quarantine facility after being identified as a close contact of an overseas case.
  

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

3.   Epidemiological investigations are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases 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.

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

Additional precautionary measures for marine sector5.   In view of the recent cases involving personnel in the marine sector, MOH will commence a special testing operations to test individuals who had boarded the vessels that Cases 58810 and 58817 had recently worked on. We will also test harbour pilots, marine surveyors and ship repair workers in the coming days, regardless of their RRT schedule, to determine their COVID-19 status. The relevant authorities will also review the need to tighten our precautionary measures for these workers.

Update on condition of confirmed cases6.   38 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,449 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.   There are currently 57 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. 64 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.

8.   The recent community cases are a stark reminder that we cannot afford to let our guard down, especially during this festive period when there are increased social interactions. We must remain disciplined in adhering to the safe management and safe distancing measures. Let us work together to avoid an uncontrolled resurgence of cases which could slow or even reverse our progress.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
31 DECEMBER 2020

[1] Case 58810 is a Singapore Permanent Resident who works as a Marine Surveyor. He was reported in MOH’s press release on 30 December.