93 More Cases Discharged, 34 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

Imported cases

2

0

2

Cases in the community

1

2

3

Cases residing in dormitories

14

15

29

a) Imported cases: 2 (2 Singaporeans)

Both imported cases are Singaporeans who returned to Singapore from Australia on 25 August and India on 24 August. They had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN.

b) Cases in the community: 3 (1 Singaporean, 2 Work Permit holders)

Of the 3 cases in the community, 2 were picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 1 had already been isolated earlier. All 3 cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

All 3 cases in the community are currently unlinked. Of these, 2 (Cases 57079 and 57098) were detected as a result of our Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories. The remaining case (Case 57082) had travelled to Malaysia but was denied entry at the airport due to administrative reasons. He had been tested negative while in Malaysia, and placed on SHN at a dedicated facility upon arrival in Singapore the next day. He was subsequently tested positive while serving his SHN.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of 2 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 3 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of 1 case per day in the past 2 weeks. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

c) Cases residing in dormitories: 29

Amongst the 29 cases residing in dormitories, 14 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 15 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 8 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, 88% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4. 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

5. 93 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 56,267 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

6. There are currently 50 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 638 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.

[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.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
5 SEPTEMBER 2020