797 More Cases Discharged, 151 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

1.     As of 16 June 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 151 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown is as follows:

1. Imported cases: 0

   There are no imported cases today.

2. Cases in the community: 2 (2 Work Permit holders)

   There are no Singaporean/ Permanent Resident cases today. The 2 cases in the community are Work Permit holders who were detected as a result of our proactive screening of workers in essential services, even though they 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 result for Case 40857 has come back positive, which indicates likely past infection. The test result for the remaining case is pending.

   Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 9 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.

3. Cases residing in dormitories: 149

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, 97% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4.     In the past week (9 June to 15 June), MOH has uncovered links for 11 previously unlinked cases.

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.     797 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 31,163 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.     There are currently 269 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. 9,511 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.

[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.