No New Cases of Locally Transmitted Covid-19 Infection

       As of 25 December 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are no new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. There are 14 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 12 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 2 were symptomatic.  

Summary of new cases

2.      Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of 1 case in the past week who is currently unlinked. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 0

There are no cases in the community today. 

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today. 

c) Imported cases: 14

Amongst the 14 imported cases, 6 (Cases 58735, 58737, 58741, 58745, 58747 and 58748) are Singaporeans and 2 (Cases 58746 and 58749) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from South Africa, Republic of Korea, UK, US, Philippines, Malaysia and India. In addition, there is 1 Work Pass holder (Case 58738) and 3 Work Permit holders (Cases 58736, 58740 and 58744) who arrived from Indonesia and India. The 2 remaining cases (Cases 58739 and 58743) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and US. They had all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or under isolation. 

Case 58741 arrived from the UK on 7 December, and served 14-day SHN at a dedicated facility until 21 December. He was swabbed on 17 December, and his test result was negative for COVID-19 infection. He subsequently developed a cough on 23 December, and was tested positive at a hospital on the same day. His original sample was tested by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), and was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19 infection. However a second sample taken on 24 December by NPHL came back negative for the virus. His serological test result has come back positive, which indicates a likely past infection. He is therefore likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others. 

Case 58746 arrived from the Philippines on 10 December, and served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore. He was moved to another dedicated facility on 20 December when MOH commenced investigations into the 13 previously reported cases who had served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore between 22 October and 11 November 2020. He was swabbed on 19 December and 21 December and his test results came back negative for COVID-19 infection. As a precautionary measure, he was swabbed again on completion of SHN on 24 December, and went home following the test. His test result came back positive that night and he was conveyed to the hospital the next day. Investigations are ongoing to assess if he could be linked to the 13 cases. His serological test result is pending.

3.     Epidemiological investigations are in progress. 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.

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

Update on condition of confirmed cases

5.    20 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,352 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

6.    There are currently 31 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 97 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. 29 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
25 DECEMBER 2020