15 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, with 14 imported and 1 in the workers' dorms

The MOH reported 15 new Covid-19 cases, including one from a workers' dormitory, on Feb 10, 2021. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE

SINGAPORE - There were 15 new coronavirus cases confirmed as at noon on Wednesday (Feb 10), including one from a migrant workers' dormitory.

The other 14 were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There are no new cases in the community.

The latest cases bring Singapore's total Covid-19 cases to 59,747.

More details will be announced on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, a 41-year-old Singapore Airlines (SIA) cabin crew member who was on a turnaround flight to the United Arab Emirates was reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus. She is the fifth person on that aircraft to have tested positive.

All five have also tested preliminarily positive for the more infectious B117 strain of the coronavirus, said the Ministry of Health.

The stewardess, who is Singaporean, was among 11 coronavirus cases confirmed by the MOH on Tuesday. All these cases were imported.

The four others on the flight - all passengers who are dependant's pass holders - were confirmed positive for Covid-19 earlier this month. They include a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy.

"In view of her recent travel history, and the possibility that she might have been infected on board the flight, we have preliminarily classified this case as imported," said the MOH.

Meanwhile, all the identified close contacts of the patient have been isolated and placed under quarantine, it added.

The air stewardess departed Singapore on the Jan 30 flight to Dubai and returned on Jan 31 without disembarking from the aircraft.

She also received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Feb 2.

"As the vaccine does not contain live virus, she could not have been infected due to vaccination," said the MOH. "It is possible for one to be infected just before or just after vaccination, as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination."

She developed anosmia - loss of the sense of smell - on Feb 4, but did not seek medical attention, said the MOH. On Sunday, she was tested for Covid-19 as part of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore's requirements.

Her pooled test came back positive for the virus on Monday, and she was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases for an individual swab, and isolated. The later test came back positive for Covid-19 the next day.

Her previous test on Jan 22 following another turnaround flight was negative for the virus and her serology test result came back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

The remaining 10 imported cases tested positive while serving stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the MOH.

Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December 2019, has infected more than 106 million people. More than 2.3 million people have died.

Correction note: MOH has clarified that the Singapore Airlines stewardess returned to Singapore on Jan 31, not Feb 1 as earlier reported.

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