9 New Cases of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

            As of 30 April 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 9 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 15 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 17 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 7 were symptomatic. 

Summary of new cases

2.             Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 10 cases in the week before to 35 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 5 cases in the week before to 6 cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3.             Amongst the 202 confirmed cases reported from 24 April to 30 April, 81 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 95 have tested negative, and 26 serology test results are pending.

Case Details

a)    Cases in the community: 9

There are 9 cases in the community today, of whom 8 are linked to previous cases and 1 is currently unlinked.

Case 62627

Case 62627 is a 20 year-old male India national who is a student at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He resides on the Yale-NUS College campus, and last attended classes on 12 April. He had been in India from 21 March 2020 to 20 January 2021, and was a close contact of 2 confirmed COVID-19 cases while he was in India.

He developed a fever, sore throat and body aches on 26 April and self-isolated in his room. He was tested for COVID-19 by the NUS University Health Centre on 28 April, and his result came back positive on 29 April. His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result has come back positive. He could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection which are no longer transmissible and infective to others, but given that we are not able to definitively conclude when he had been infected, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure.

Case 61993 Cluster

Cases 62621 and 62622

Case 62621 is a 33 year-old female India national who is a Dependant’s Pass holder. She is a homemaker, and is the spouse of Case 62063[1]. Case 62622, a 4 year-old girl, is their child.

As they had been identified as close contacts of 61993[2], they were placed on quarantine on 15 April. They were tested for COVID-19 infection during quarantine on 16 April, and both their tests were negative. They developed acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms on 28 April, and were tested again after reporting their symptoms. This time, their test results came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 29 April and they were conveyed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Case 62553 Cluster

Case 62629

Case 62629 is a 41 year-old male Malaysia national who works as a sales assistant at New Odense(s) Confectionery & Bakery. He is a household contact of Case 62638.

He developed a fever and cough on 28 April and sought medical treatment at a General Practitioner clinic where he was tested for COVID-19. As he had been identified as a close contact of Case 62553[3], he was contacted by MOH on 28 April and placed on quarantine. He reported his symptom and was conveyed in an ambulance to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 29 April. His serology test result is negative.

Case 62638

Case 62638 is a 26 year-old female Singapore Permanent Resident who works as a cleaner employed by Exceltec Property Management Pte Ltd, and deployed at a community care facility at Tuas South. At work, she dons full personal protection equipment (PPE), including N95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves. She is a household contact of Case 62629 and a colleague of Case 62553.

She developed a cough and sore throat on 28 April. As she had been identified as a close contact of Case 62553, she was contacted by MOH on 28 April and placed on quarantine, and was tested for COVID-19 on the same day. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 29 April and she was conveyed in an ambulance to Alexandra Hospital. Her serology test result is negative.

Case 62541 Cluster

Case 62615

Case 62615 is a 41 year-old female China national who works as a cleaner at ISS Facility Services Pte Ltd, and is deployed to TTSH Ward 9D. She is asymptomatic and was detected on 29 April as part of TTSH’s proactive testing of staff in Ward 9D following the confirmation of Case 62541[4]. Her test came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day. Her serological test result has come back negative. Case 62615 received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 27 January, and the second dose on 22 February.

Case 62635

Case 62635 is a 77 year-old female Singaporean who was admitted to TTSH Ward 9D on 22 April. She tested negative for COVID-19 on 26 April while warded at TTSH. The next day, she was discharged to United Medicare Centre (Toa Payoh) Nursing Home. On 28 April, as she had been identified as a patient who had stayed in Ward 9D, she was isolated. She was tested the next day and her test came back positive for COVID-19 infection.

TTSH has stopped all patient transfers to intermediate and long-term care (ILTC) facilities until swabs for patients and staff in lockdown wards are completed and cleared. MOH has reminded ILTC facilities to be vigilant and closely monitor patients transferred from TTSH from 18 April onwards. This includes the isolation and/or segregation of these transferred patients from the rest of the residents where possible and close monitoring of their health condition. In addition, all prevailing precautionary measures, including infection prevention and control measures, adherence to Personal Protective Equipment guidelines, split team arrangements for patient facing staff and visitation policies in the respective ILTC facilities will continue.

Case 62643

Case 62643 is a 65 year-old female Singaporean who is a patient at TTSH, and has been warded in Ward 9C since 19 April. She was detected as part of TTSH’s proactive testing of patients on 29 April, and her result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day. As a precautionary measure, TTSH locked down Ward 9C, and tested all staff and patients who had been in the ward. All other patients in Ward 9C have tested negative for COVID-19 infection. Results for staff are pending.

Case 62648

Case 62648 is a 36 year-old male Singaporean who is a doctor at the National Neuroscience Institute. He is asymptomatic, and was detected on 29 April as part of TTSH’s proactive testing of staff. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day. Case 62648 received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 21 January, and the second dose on 24 February.

b)    Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today.

c)    Imported cases: 15

Amongst the 15 imported cases,

• 2 (Cases 62658 and 62659) are Singaporeans and 2 (Cases 62657 and 62660) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from India.

• 3 (Cases 62623, 62655 and 62656) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and Nepal.

• 1 (Case 62662) is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Malaysia.

• 1 (Case 62654) is a Work Pass holder who arrived from Nepal.

• 6 (Cases 62607, 62610, 62630, 62632, 62644 and 62645) are Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia and the Philippines, all of whom are foreign domestic workers.

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

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

5.             Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. 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.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

6.             13 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 60,751 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.             There are currently 113 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 251 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. 30 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

[1] Case 62063 is a 35 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Pass holder. He is the brother of Case 61993, and his household contact. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 16 April.

[2] Case 61993 is a 34 year-old male Indian national who is a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 15 April.

[3] Case 62553 is a 39 year-old female Vietnam national who works as a cleaner deployed at a community care facility at Tuas South. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 28 April.

[4] Case 62541 is a 46 year-old female Philippines national who is a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and is deployed at Ward 9D. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 27 April. There are 13 cases in total linked to TTSH so far.