774 More Cases Discharged, 257 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

        As of 18 June 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 257 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown is as follows: 

a) Imported cases: 0

There are no imported cases today.  

b) Cases in the community: 4 (1 Permanent Resident, 3 Work Permit holders)

Of the 4 cases in the community, 3 had already been placed on quarantine earlier, and the remaining case had been picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening.

The Permanent Resident case (Case 41273) was detected due to our proactive screening of workers in essential services, although he is asymptomatic. 

All 3 Work Permit holders (Cases 41297, 41315 and 41410) had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had already been quarantined at government quarantine facilities. They were swabbed during quarantine to verify their status, even though 2 of them (Cases 41297 and 41410) are asymptomatic. 

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we also conducted serological tests to determine if these cases are current or past infections [1]. The serological test results for Cases 41297, 41315 and 41273 have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections. The test result for the remaining case is pending. 

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 8 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 7 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 4 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 3 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: 253

We continue to pick up cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of our process to verify and test the status of all workers. 

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. 

4.       MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission. As there have been no more cases linked to Orange Valley Nursing Home (6 Simei Street 3) for the past two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days), the cluster has now been closed.

Links between previous cases found

5.       In the past week (11 June to 17 June), MOH has uncovered links for 5 previously unlinked cases. 

6.     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

7.     774 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 32,712 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

8.       There are currently 225 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 2 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 8,510 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. 26 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
18 JUNE 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.