66 MORE CASES DISCHARGED, 40 NEW CASES OF COVID-19 INFECTION CONFIRMED

1.      As of 6 September 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 40 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

Summary of new cases

Amongst the new cases today, 38 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 2 were symptomatic.

a)      Imported cases: 13 (4 Singaporeans, 2 Permanent Residents, 1 Work Pass holder, 5 Work Permit holders, 1 Student’s Pass holder)

Amongst the 13 imported cases, 4 (Cases 57120, 57123, 57144 and 57145) are Singaporeans and 2 (Cases 57121 and 57122) are Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from India between 24 August and 26 August, and the Philippines on 25 August. Another 6 (Cases 57114, 57118, 57125, 57126, 57129 and 57132) are Work Pass/ Work Permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from India on 25 August, Indonesia on 24 August and 25 August, and the Philippines on 23 August and 25 August. The remaining case (Case 57124) is a Student’s Pass holder who arrived from India on 25 August.

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 at dedicated facilities.

b)      Cases in the community: 4 (1 Work Pass holder, 3 Work Permit holders)

Of the 4 cases in the community, 3 were picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 1 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. All 4 cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

2 of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Case 57147 had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. Case 57131 is linked to the cluster at CDPL Tuas Dormitory, and was detected as a result of our Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories.

The other 2 community cases are currently unlinked. Both (Cases 57139 and 57149) were detected as a result of our Rostered Routine Testing, even though they are asymptomatic.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 3 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 2 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased, from an average of 1 case per day in the week before, to an average of 2 per day in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

c)      Cases residing in dormitories: 23

Amongst the 23 cases residing in dormitories, 5 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status. 

The remaining 18 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as 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.

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we have also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections.¹ The serological test result for 1 case has come back positive so far, which indicates likely past infection.

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, 88% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4.      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

5.      66 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 56,333 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 none is in the intensive care unit. 611 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.

[1] Cases whose serological tests are positive are likely to have a past infection, and could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA picked by the PCR test, which were no longer transmissible and infective to others.