No New Cases of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

      As of 20 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 19 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 18 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 no new cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.
Case Detailsa) Cases in the community: 0There are no cases in the community today.b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0There are no cases residing in dormitories today. c) Imported cases: 19Amongst the 19 imported cases, 2 (Cases 58640 and 58652) are Singaporeans and 3 (Cases 58638, 58643 and 58658) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from the UK and India. Another 2 are a Work Pass holder (Case 58644) and a Work Permit holder (Case 58653) currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Russia and Indonesia. In addition, there are 3 (Cases 58641, 58642 and 58657) Long-Term Visit Pass holders who arrived from India, and 1 (Case 58637) Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from the UK.

Another 4 are Short-Term Visit Pass holders. Of these, 1 (Case 58646) was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment, accompanied by his caregiver (Case 58645). The other 2 (Cases 58647 and 58656) are here to visit their family members who are Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents. The remaining 4 (Cases 58648, 58649, 58650 and 58651) are Special Pass holders who are crew members of a ship which arrived from Indonesia. They had remained on the ship until they were conveyed to a quarantine facility as they had been identified as close contacts of an earlier confirmed case.They had all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or during isolation.

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

4.   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.

Investigations into 13 cases who served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore5.    MOH is investigating 13 previously reported cases [1] of COVID-19 infection amongst individuals who had served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore between 22 October and 11 November 2020. As a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of all guests, the hotel has stopped accepting new guests since 19 December and is checking out existing guests progressively. Individuals serving SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore have been transported via dedicated vehicles to an alternative SHN dedicated facility.

6.    In total, 394 persons serving SHN at the hotel have been swabbed, and 384 test results are ready, while 10 are pending. Of the results that are ready, 381 have come back negative for COVID-19 infection. 3 (Cases 58656, 58657 and 58658) have tested positive and were immediately conveyed to the hospital via ambulance. As they have recent travel history, it is likely that these are imported and have been included in today’s case count. Nevertheless the National Public Health Laboratory will conduct whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis to determine if they could be linked to the 13 cases.

7.    MOH has tested 571 staff of Mandarin Orchard Singapore so far. Of these, 158 test results have been processed, while 413 results are pending. All 158 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results have come back negative for COVID-19. However the serological tests of 3 staff have come back positive, indicating likely past infections. Epidemiological investigations of these cases are in progress. 

Update on condition of confirmed cases 

8.    5 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,279 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

9.    There are currently 43 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 71 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
20 DECEMBER 2020

[1] Cases 58204, 58235, 58233, 58236, 58237, 58234, 58244, 58245, 58253, 58252, 58268, 58281 and 58284. They were confirmed between 2 November and 11 November to have COVID-19 infection. These cases were classified as imported cases due to their recent travel history.