2 New Cases of Locally Transmitted COVID-19 Infection [30 Oct]

      As of 30 October 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified 2 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. Of these, 1 is in the community, and 1 resides in a dormitory. In addition, there are 7 imported cases, who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. All new cases today are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance.

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 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 1 case in the week before, to 4 in the past week. 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: 1

There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. Case 58176 is asymptomatic and was detected when he underwent a pre-departure COVID-19 test on 27 October prior to a planned trip to India which came back positive. He had been in India in July and August 2020, and had served 14-day SHN at a dedicated facility when he returned to Singapore on 28 August. He was tested negative for COVID-19 while serving SHN. His serological test taken on 29 October is positive, and epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine if this could be a past infection.

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 1

There is 1 case residing in a dormitory today. He had been identified earlier as a contact of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. He was tested during quarantine to determine his status. 

c)  Imported cases: 7 

Amongst the 7 imported cases, 1 (Case 58175) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from Italy, and 1 (Case 58179) is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Bangladesh. Another 4 are currently employed in Singapore. Of these, 3 (Cases 58171, 58172 and 58173) are Work Pass holders who arrived from US, Belgium and Portugal, and 1 (Case 58174) is a Work Permit holder who arrived from Bangladesh. The remaining case (Case 58180) is a Special Pass holder who arrived from the Philippines to board a ship docked here as a crew member. They had all been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN. 

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

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.

Links between previous cases found

5.      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 

6.      10 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 57,909 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.      There are currently 42 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 24 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. 28 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
30 OCTOBER 2020