NO NEW CASES OF LOCALLY TRANSMITTED COVID-19 INFECTION

As of 27 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 5 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 4 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 1 was 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: 5

Amongst the 5 imported cases, 1 (Case 58763) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from Ukraine. The remaining 4 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, of whom 3 (Cases 58761, 58764 and 58765) are foreign domestic workers. They had all already been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN. 

Case 58762 served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore before she was transferred to another dedicated facility on 20 December when MOH commenced investigations into 13 previously reported cases who had served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore between 22 October and 11 November 2020. She was swabbed on 19 December and 21 December and her test results were negative for COVID-19 infection. Her swab on 24 December at the end of SHN came back positive, and she was conveyed to the hospital the next day. A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) was also positive. However a second sample taken by NPHL on 26 December came back negative, and her serological test result has also come back negative. Investigations are ongoing to assess if she could be linked to the 13 cases.

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.     8 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,370 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. 94 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. 

7.     Singapore will enter into Phase Three of re-opening on 28 December. As more activities resume in the community, adherence to the safe management and safe distancing measures becomes even more critical in mitigating spread and keeping community transmission low. Let us continue to keep our guard up and be disciplined in our fight against COVID-19, so that we can remain safe as we transit to Phase Three. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
27 DECEMBER 2020