321 More Cases Discharged, 327 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

1.     As of 17 July 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 327 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

1. Imported cases: 3 (1 Singaporean, 1 Dependant’s Pass holder, 1 Long-Term Visit Pass holder)

   Amongst the 3 imported cases, 1 (Case 47522) is a Singaporean who returned from the Philippines on 6 July. The remaining cases are children who are Dependant’s Pass or Long-Term Visit Pass holders who arrived in Singapore from India on 26 June (Case 47389) and 15 July (Case 47529). All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN.

2. Cases in the community: 9 (6 Singaporeans, 2 Work Pass holders, 1 Work Permit holder)

   Of the 9 cases in the community, 1 was picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 4 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. 5 of the cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

   8 of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Of these, 4 cases (Cases 47434, 47445, 47504 and 47521) had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. They were tested during their quarantine to determine their status, even though 3 of them are asymptomatic. Another case (Case 47502) was identified from our testing of individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations. The remaining 3 cases (Cases 47242, 47508 and 47509) were swabbed under our enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor. This allows us to detect infected individuals early and to quickly contain further spread.

   There is 1 community case (Case 47229) today who is currently unlinked. She had been hospitalised for reasons not related to COVID-19 and was subsequently tested positive following her demise. Epidemiological investigations of the case is in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case 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 household contacts.

   Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 16 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 11 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 8 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 6 per day in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3. Cases residing in dormitories: 315

We continue to pick up cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of our process to verify and test the status of all workers.

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 linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4.     In the past week (10 July to 16 July), MOH has uncovered links for 13 previously unlinked cases.

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.     321 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 43,577 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.     There are currently 165 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 3,684 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.

8.     Case 47229, a 72 year-old female Singapore Citizen, has passed away on 15 July 2020. She had been conveyed to the National University Hospital’s emergency department on 15 July for reasons not related to COVID-19, and had a history of diabetes mellitus. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 16 July after her demise. The cause of death is intracerebral haemorrhage. [1]

[1] Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count. This is consistent with international practice for classifying deaths.