Coronavirus: Four out of five community cases announced on Thursday are unlinked

Essential workers being screened for Covid-19 at the regional screening centre at The Float @ Marina Bay on June 9, 2020. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Four of the five new coronavirus patients in the community announced on Thursday (Aug 13) are currently unlinked, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Of these, three cases were identified as a result of periodic screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dormitories.

The remaining unlinked patient was tested as part of the ministry's efforts to screen individuals working in front-line Covid-19 operations.

Serological tests were conducted on all four patients. They all returned positive, indicating that they are likely past infections and are no longer infectious.

The fifth patient in the community was identified as a contact of a previously-confirmed case. She had been placed in quarantine earlier, and was tested during quarantine to determine her status, said MOH.

Meanwhile, Golden Village cinema in VivoCity was added to a list of places visited by coronavirus patients while they were infectious.

The ministry provides the list of locations and the times that infectious Covid-19 patients have visited for at least 30 minutes to get those who were at those times to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on MOH's website.

It has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if necessary.

Among the six imported cases announced on Thursday, two are Singaporeans who returned to Singapore separately from the Philippines on Aug 11 and from the United Arab Emirates on Aug 1.

They had both been placed on 14-day stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving their notices.

The remaining four imported cases are Filipino seamen who are special pass holders. They arrived in Singapore from India on August 8 on a vessel that they did not disembark from.

The four subsequently reported symptoms and were swabbed while on the vessel, where they had remained until their test results came back positive for Covid-19. They were then taken in ambulances to a hospital.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the remaining 91 of 102 new coronavirus patients announced on Thursday, taking Singapore's total to 55,497.

However, 10 clusters in dormitories were closed as they have been cleared by the Inter-Agency Taskforce, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for Covid-19.

MOH added that there are currently about 21,700 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period. These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends, and the ministry expects the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering off.

The number of new daily cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day over the same period.

With 216 cases discharged on Thursday, 50,721 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 91 patients remain in hospital, while 4,643 are recuperating in community facilities. None are in intensive care.

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

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