The leap in the number of local and unlinked cases may signal the start of community-level outbreaks in Singapore. -- PHOTO: AP
Another 23 new Influenza A (H1N1) cases have surfaced, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Singapore to 126 by last night.
Of the new cases, two were unlinked - that is, the victims have no travel history or known contact with confirmed cases, while six have been traced to two clusters.
Four patients yesterday are said to attend Riverlife Church in Loyang Besar Close.
Another patient diagnosed last Friday, the 103rd case, also attends the service there. The 14-year-old boy and the 104th case, a 12-year-old male, are brothers.
All five patients had attended the church service on either June 13 or 14. They developed symptoms several days later.
Another cluster identified is a group of three foreigners on a student exchange programme with the National University of Singapore (NUS). They travelled with a group of NUS schoolmates to Thailand for an educational trip between June 5 and 8.
Two of them - one is a 24-year-old Columbian woman and the other a 22-year-old American woman - were diagnosed with H1N1 flu yesterday. The other case was registered last Friday.
The leap in the number of local and unlinked cases may signal the start of community-level outbreaks in Singapore.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said two weeks ago that if that happens, the country will switch from a 'containment' strategy to a 'mitigation' strategy, although it will try to maintain containment measures for as long as is practical.
This means resources will be focused on caring for those who are ill, instead of the current strategy of quarantining potential and confirmed patients.
