309 More Cases Discharged, 68 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

       As of 20 August 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 68 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

a) Imported cases: 2 (2 Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents)

Both the imported cases today are Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from India on 6 August and 8 August. They had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN.

b) Cases in the community: 0

There are no cases in the community today. 

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 2 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 1 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of fewer than 1 per day in the past 2 weeks. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

c) Cases residing in dormitories: 66

The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories. There are currently about 14,500 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period. These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends, and we expect the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering down thereafter.

2.   Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report). Please refer to Annex A for the summary of the confirmed cases. 

3.        Of the new cases, 99% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. 

4.      Tech Park Crescent dormitory (43 Tech Park Crescent) and the dormitory at 53 Sungei Kadut Loop have been cleared by the Inter-agency Taskforce, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for COVID-19 infection. As such, the clusters have now been closed. 

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 B and Annex C for details. 

Update on condition of confirmed cases

6.      309 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 53,119 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

7.       There are currently 75 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 2,878 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. 27 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. 

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
20 AUGUST 2020