12 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

Singapore reported 12 new Covid-19 cases, all imported, on Nov 22, 2020. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

SINGAPORE - There were 12 new coronavirus cases confirmed at noon on Sunday (Nov 22), taking Singapore's total to 58,160.

All 12 were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

This is the 12th day in a row where there were no locally transmitted cases.

It constitutes the longest stretch without a community case since the first coronavirus case was reported in Singapore on Jan 23. There were 12 days between the first reported case, which was imported, and the first recorded community cases on Feb 4.

More details will be announced on Sunday night, said MOH.

On Saturday, the Health Ministry announced five new coronavirus cases, all of which were imported.

They were placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore and tested during that period.

Four were asymptomatic and detected through screening and surveillance, while one was symptomatic.

Of Saturday's five cases, one was a Singaporean who returned from Mexico, while another was a Singapore permanent resident who returned from Britain.

Another two were work permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines.

The remaining case was a long-term visit pass holder who arrived from Oman.

MOH also said that Bugis Street and the Kopitiam @ Jurong East have been added to the list of places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious.

MOH provides the list of locations that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times they visited them to get people who were at those places at the same time to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

It has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned, if necessary.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with no new cases in the past week, MOH noted.

Six more cases of coronavirus infection were discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

In all, 58,049 people have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

On Saturday, there were 22 confirmed cases still in hospital. Of these, most were stable or improving, but one was in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 34 were isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Singapore has had 28 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 56.8 million people. More than 1.36 million people have died.

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