4 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported with no local patients

MOH confirmed four new imported cases of Covid-19 on Oct 19, 2020. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

SINGAPORE - There were four new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Monday noon (Oct 19), taking Singapore's total to 57,915.

All are imported cases, who had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday.

There were no local cases in the community or from worker's dormitories.

More details will be announced on Monday night.

On Sunday, MOH reported two new locally-transmitted cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore - an unlinked community case and a case in a worker's dormitory.

There were also five imported cases, who had all been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival here.

The sole community case reported on Sunday is a 40-year-old Bangladeshi man who works as a technician.

The man had not gone to work after he first developed symptoms last Wednesday. He was later detected through community testing of all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection.

The patient also took a serological test that came back positive, which indicates a likely past infection.

Of the imported cases, four are currently employed in Singapore. Two are female work permit holders aged 40 and 27 who arrived from the Philippines.

The other two are a 32-year-old male work pass holder who arrived in Singapore from Greece, and a 48-year-old male work pass holder from France.

The remaining imported case is a 17-year-old male student pass holder from Guatemala.

The single Covid-19 case reported in the dormitories on Sunday was detected through a bi-weekly routine testing of workers living there.

MOH added that nine more cases of Covid-19 infection were discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. This brings the number of people who have fully recovered from the infection to 57,792.

The ministry added that 40 patients remained in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 36 were recuperating in community facilities. These add up to 76 active cases as at Sunday.

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The number of new daily coronavirus cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of fewer than one case per day in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of fewer than one case per day in the same period.

Last Friday, MOH reported that for the first time since March 12, there were fewer than 100 active coronavirus cases in Singapore.

Globally, the Covid-19 outbreak - which began in December last year - has infected more than 39.8 million people. More than 1.11 million people have died.

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