49 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 1 in the community and 8 imported

Singapore confirmed 49 new Covid-19 cases on Sept 13, 2020. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

SINGAPORE - There were 49 new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Sunday noon (Sept 13), taking Singapore's total to 57,406.

They included one community case, a work pass holder, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were also eight imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

More details will be announced on Sunday night.

On Saturday, there were 42 new coronavirus cases confirmed, of which 41 were asymptomatic.

Of the new cases on Saturday, 10 were imported, and they were placed on stay-home notices upon arrival here.

Two are Singaporeans, and five are permanent residents who returned to Singapore from India on Aug 30 and Aug 31.

Another two imported patients are work pass holders who arrived separately from Germany on Aug 30 and the Philippines on Aug 29.

The remaining imported case announced on Saturday is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from India on Sept 5.

There were four community cases reported on Saturday, comprising one permanent resident, one work pass holder and two work permit holders, said MOH.

All four were asymptomatic and detected through proactive testing.

Case No. 57,470 had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case, and was placed on quarantine earlier.

Case No. 57,463 was tested as part of efforts to screen individuals working in front-line Covid-19 operations.

Meanwhile, Case No. 57,461 was swabbed as part of MOH's active case finding efforts.

The last community infection announced on Saturday, Case No. 57,495, was detected as a result of MOH's routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are staying outside dormitories.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 28 new coronavirus patients confirmed on Saturday.

Of the 28, 16 were identified as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine if they had the virus.

The remaining 12 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as biweekly rostered routine testing of workers staying in dormitories.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from three cases a fortnight ago, to two in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also decreased from a daily average of two cases to one over the same period.

With 92 cases discharged on Saturday, 56,684 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 54 patients remained in hospital on Saturday, with none in intensive care, while 577 were recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 28.9 million people. More than 924,500 people have died.

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