SINGAPORE - There were 18 new coronavirus cases confirmed at noon on Saturday (April 3), taking Singapore's total to 60,468.

One of these was in the community while the other 17 were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Only one of the new cases showed symptoms and the other 17 are asymptomatic.

There were no cases in the migrant workers' dormitories.

The community case, a female Myanmar national who is a domestic worker, is currently unlinked to other known cases, though she has been identified as a close contact of another confirmed case, out of her infectious period.

She had arrived from Myanmar on Jan 30 and remained under a stay-home notice (SHN) at a dedicated facility until Feb 13. Her test on Feb 12 was negative for Covid-19.

The 24-year-old moved into a boarding house for foreign domestic workers while waiting to take up her job, and did not leave the place until moving into her employer's residence on March 9.

She is asymptomatic and her case, 61508, was detected when she was swabbed on April 1 as part of the MOH's investigation into Case 61184, a 26-year-old Myanmar domestic worker who had stayed at a boarding house and was confirmed to have the Covid-19 infection on March 25.

Case 61508, like other close contacts who had interacted with Case 61184 outside of her infectious period, was tested as an added precaution taken by MOH.

Her test result came back positive on April 2 and she was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance.

Her serological test result has also come back positive, and she could be shedding minute fragments of the virus from a past infection, but the ministry said it was not able to definitively conclude that she was infected before her arrival in Singapore.

Investigations are ongoing to determine if Case 61508 and Case 61184 are linked.

All the identified close contacts of Saturday's new community case, including other household members, have been isolated and placed on quarantine. They will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period, and serological tests will be conducted as well to determine if this case could have been infected by them.

Three of Saturday's imported cases are Singapore permanent residents who returned from Brazil, India and Ivory Coast. Two others are student pass holders who arrived from India and the United Arab Emirates, while four others are work pass holders who travelled from India.

Seven others are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, and two of these are foreign domestic workers.

One case is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Myanmar to visit a family member, a Singapore permanent resident.

MOH said the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at two cases a week in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also been two cases a week during the same period.

With nine patients discharged on Saturday, 60,170 people have recovered from the disease so far.

A total of 41 patients remained in hospital, including one in a critical condition in intensive care, while 212 were recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 30 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while another 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.