66 More Cases Discharged, 63 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

          As of 10 September 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 63 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

Summary of new cases

Amongst the new cases today, 56 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 7 were symptomatic.

a) Imported cases: 6 (1 Singaporean, 2 Work Pass holders, 2 Work Permit holders, 1 Student’s Pass holder)

Amongst the 6 imported cases, 1 (Case 57328) is a Singaporean who returned to Singapore from the UAE on 29 August. Another 4 (Cases 57322, 57324, 57362 and 57363) are Work Pass/ Work Permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Bangladesh on 31 August, and Indonesia and Russia on 29 August. The remaining case (Case 57313) is a Student’s Pass holder who arrived from the Philippines on 27 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: 2 (1 Singaporean, 1 Work Permit holder)

Of the 2 cases in the community, 1 was picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 1 had already been isolated earlier.

Case 57312 is linked to previous imported cases (Cases 57145, 57186 and 57272) who are his family members. They had returned from India on 24 August, and were placed on SNH at a dedicated facility upon arrival in Singapore. While Case 57312 had not travelled overseas with them, he had requested to take care of his spouse and young children at the SHN facility, and was isolated with them from 24 August.

There is 1 case in the community who is currently unlinked. Case 57318 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, even though he is 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 also decreased, from an average of 2 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 1 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: 55

Amongst the 55 cases residing in dormitories, 26 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 29 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. 

Of the cases residing in dormitories today, 26 are from Avery Lodge, the majority of whom had been placed on quarantine earlier and were tested during quarantine to determine their status. The remaining cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as our bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing.

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we have also conducted serological tests to determine if some of the cases are current or past infections [1].  The serological test results for 7 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections.

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, 97% 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, 56,558 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

6.      There are currently 47 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 597 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
10 SEPTEMBER 2020

[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.