SINGAPORE - A 57-year-old Singaporean housewife was the lone locally transmitted coronavirus case reported on Friday (Jan 15), said the Ministry of Health.
The patient, whose case is currently unlinked, was detected when she took a Covid-19 pre-departure test on Wednesday for a trip to Vietnam.
Her results came back positive on Thursday and she was sent to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance.
MOH said that her polymerase chain reaction test yielded a high cycle threshold value, which indicates a low viral load. Her serological test result also came back positive, which indicates a likely past infection.
MOH added Downtown East, Compass One in Sengkang, Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, White Sands in Pasir Ris and Raffles City Shopping Centre to the list of places visited by Covid-19 patients while infectious.
Visits were also recorded at Eastpoint Mall in Simei, CityLink Mall, Singapore Swimming Club, Heartbeat @ Bedok and Century Square in the first two weeks of January.
The health ministry also announced on Friday that there were 29 imported cases, bringing Singapore's total number of Covid-19 cases to 59,059.
They included 13 work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar, of whom five were foreign domestic workers.
There were also a Singaporean and five permanent residents who returned from the United States, the United Kingdom and India.
Separately, MFA said on Friday that the Singapore-Japan Reciprocal Green Lane has been suspended until the state of emergency in Japan is lifted.
"Given the reciprocal nature of the Singapore-Japan RGL and Residence Track, travellers will not be able to apply to travel from Japan to Singapore under the RGL and Residence Track during this period," said the spokesman, in response to media queries.
Overall, there were two new cases in the community in the past seven days, and eight the week before. There were also two unlinked cases in the community in the past seven days, compared with five the week before.
With 14 cases discharged on Friday, 58,756 patients have fully recovered from the disease. A total of 51 patients remain in hospital, and none is in intensive care.
