53 More Cases Discharged, 47 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

      As of 8 September 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 47 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

Summary of new cases 

All new cases today are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance.

a)   Imported cases: 1 (1 Singaporean) 

Case 57186 is a Singaporean who returned to Singapore from India on 24 August. He had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and was tested while serving SHN at a dedicated facility. 

b)   Cases in the community: 0 

There are no cases in the community today.

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 increased, from an average of 1 case per day in the week before, to an average of 2 per day in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.  

c)    Cases residing in dormitories: 46 

Amongst the 46 cases residing in dormitories, 25 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status. 

The remaining 21 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as our bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories. This allows us to pick up cases early, including asymptomatic ones, so that we are able to ring-fence them quickly to prevent further transmission, by aggressively containing, tracing and isolating the close contacts. 

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we have also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections. [1]The serological test results for 4 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections. 

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, 98% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. 

4.     MOH has completed our screening and testing of individuals who had visited SLR Revolution at Excelsior Shopping Centre (5 Coleman Street) between 15 August and 18 August 2020. This was a precautionary measure following the detection of 3 cases (Cases 56184, 56626 and 56826) who had worked at or visited the shop, even though the risk of infection for visitors is assessed to be low. In all, 254 individuals were tested, and all the results have come back negative. 

Links between previous cases found 

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.     53 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 56,461 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.     There are currently 48 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 555 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
8 SEPTEMBER 2020

[1] Cases whose serological tests are positive are likely to have a past infection, and could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA picked by the PCR test, which were no longer transmissible and infective to others.