1 New Case Of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection

       As of 16 October 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified 1 new case of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The case resides in a dormitory and there are no new cases in the community. In addition, there are 8 imported cases, who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival. Amongst the new cases today, 7 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 stable at an average of fewer than 1 case per day in the past 2 weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has decreased from an average of fewer than 1 case per day in the week before, to none in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3.   Of the new cases, 89% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. 

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 0 

There are no cases in the community today.  

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 1

There is 1 case residing in a dormitory today. He was detected through 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. His serological test result has come back positive, which indicates likely past infection.

c) Imported cases: 8

Amongst the 8 imported cases, 2 (Cases 58055 and 58056) are Singaporeans who returned from the Philippines. Another 4 (Cases 58060, 58061, 58062 and 58063) are Work Permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar. They had all been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN. 

The remaining 2 cases are Short-Term Visit Pass holders. Case 58058 was allowed entry into Singapore from India as he was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment. He was conveyed directly to a hospital and isolated upon arrival in Singapore and was tested subsequently. The remaining case (Case 58059) is a crew member of a ship which arrived from Indonesia. He had not disembarked from the ship, and was swabbed on board after developing symptoms. He had remained on the ship until his test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection and was then conveyed to a hospital. 

4.    Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report).

5.    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. 

6.    MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission. As there have been no more cases linked to the cluster at The Jovell construction site (27 Flora Drive) for the past two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days), the cluster has now been closed.

Links between previous cases found

7.   Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. Please refer to Annex A and Annex B for details. 

Update on condition of confirmed cases

8.   20 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 57,784 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

9.   There are currently 30 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 59 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. This is the first time since 12 March 2020 that the number of active cases (comprising cases who are hospitalised or at community facilities) has fallen below 100. 28 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
16 OCTOBER 2020