Five new coronavirus cases were confirmed yesterday, of which all were imported.
This brings Singapore's total cases to 58,524.
Among the five new cases is a 23-year-old female work permit holder from Malaysia who was on a stay-home notice (SHN) at Mandarin Orchard Singapore before she was transferred to another dedicated SHN facility on Dec 20.
On that day, MOH commenced investigations into 13 previously reported cases who had served SHNs at the hotel between Oct 22 and Nov 11.
The 13 cases, which came from 10 different countries, were infected by coronavirus strains with "high genetic similarity", which implied that the infections might have come from one source and could have happened in the hotel.
The Malaysian woman was swabbed on Dec 19 and Dec 21, and her test results were negative for Covid-19 infection.
But her swab on Dec 24 at the end of her SHN came back positive, and she was taken to the hospital the next day.
A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) was also positive.
However, a second sample taken by NPHL on Saturday came back negative, and her serological test result was also negative. The latter test determines if the infection was an old one.
Investigations are ongoing to determine if she could be linked to the 13 cases being investigated by MOH.
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Update on cases
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New cases: 5
Imported: 5 (1 permanent resident, 4 work permit holders)
In community: 0
In dormitories: 0
New community cases in the past week: 1
(1 unlinked case)
Active cases: 125
In hospitals: 31 (0 in ICU)
In community facilities: 94
Deaths: 29
Patients with Covid-19 who died of other causes: 15
Total discharged: 58,355
Discharged yesterday: 8
TOTAL CASES: 58,524
Among the other four imported cases confirmed yesterday is a 33-year-old male permanent resident who returned from Ukraine.
The remaining three cases are foreign domestic workers holding work permits - two Indonesians, aged 37 and 38, and a 48-year-old Filipino woman.
All five imported cases had already been placed on SHNs upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving their notices.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with only one such case in the past week, who is currently unlinked.
With eight cases discharged yesterday, 58,355 patients have fully recovered from the disease.
A total of 31 Covid-19 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 94 are recuperating in community facilities.
Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.
