2 NEW CASES OF LOCALLY TRANSMITTED COVID-19 INFECTION

1.      As of 16 April 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 2 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The cases are in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 32 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 31 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 3 were symptomatic.

Summary of new cases

2.      Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 2 cases in the week before to 4 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 2 cases in the week before to 3 cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3.      Amongst the 168 confirmed cases reported from 10 April to 16 April, 54 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 77 have tested negative, and 37 serology test results are pending.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 2

There are 2 cases in the community today who are currently unlinked. 

Case 61988

Case 61988 is a 44 year-old male Indonesian national who is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder. He arrived from Indonesia on 28 February as caregiver to his father who was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment for a condition that is not related to COVID-19.

His pre-departure test done in Indonesia on 26 February was negative for COVID-19, as was his test taken in Singapore on 1 March. He served SHN at a dedicated facility until 14 March, and his test on 13 March during SHN was also negative for COVID-19.

He is asymptomatic, and was detected when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 14 April in preparation for his return to Indonesia. His test result came back positive on the same day, and he was conveyed in an ambulance to a hospital. His serology test result is pending.

Case 61993

Case 61993 is a 34 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Pass holder. He is a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore but had only gone to work for 1 day on 12 April, when he had onset of symptoms in the evening while at work.

He had travelled to India from 28 December 2020 to 21 March 2021, and served SHN at a dedicated facility upon his return to Singapore. His pre-departure test done in India on 19 March was negative for COVID-19, and he again tested negative for his on-arrival swab in Singapore on 21 March. While he was serving SHN, he had been identified as a close contact of Case 61141 during their flight to Singapore, and was placed on quarantine at a dedicated facility from 24 March to 11 April. His tests done during quarantine on 25 March, 3 April and 10 April were all negative for COVID-19 infection.

He developed fatigue on 12 April evening, a sore throat and body aches on 13 April, and a fever on 14 April. He stayed at home from 13 April, and only left his residence to seek medical treatment at a polyclinic on 14 April, where he was tested for COVID-19. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, and he was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance. His serology result has come back negative, indicating that this is a current infection.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases, including their family members and co-workers, 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.

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today. 

c) Imported cases: 32

Amongst the 32 imported cases, 

• 3 (Cases 61990, 62015 and 62019) are Singaporeans and 6 (Cases 61992, 61998, 62012, 62020, 62021 and 62022) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from India, Myanmar and the Philippines.
• 4 (Cases 61997, 62001, 62029 and 62030) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and the Netherlands.
• 1 (Case 61991) is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from India.
• 16 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Myanmar, of whom 2 (Cases 62003 and 62018) are foreign domestic workers.
• 2 (Cases 61979 and 61987) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders. Case 61979 arrived from France for a work project in Singapore and Case 61987 arrived from India to visit his family member who is a Singaporean. 

They had all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or during isolation.

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.      29 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 60,446 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

6.      There are currently 51 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 2 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 242 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. 30 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.