47 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 1 imported; no new community cases

Singapore confirmed 47 new Covid-19 infections on Sept 8, 2020. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - There were 47 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Tuesday noon (Sept 8), taking Singapore's total to 57,091.

There was an imported case who had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

There were no new community cases, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). The last time there were no community cases was last Friday.

More details will be announced on Tuesday night.

On Monday, a total of 22 new Covid-19 cases was announced by the MOH, the lowest daily figure in more than five months since March 16, when there were 17 cases.

Meanwhile, several malls across the island - VivoCity, Lucky Plaza, AMK Hub and Paya Lebar Square - were among the latest places visited by infectious Covid-19 patients, the MOH said on Monday.

Also newly added to the list of locations were Gardens by the Bay, the ICA Building, Mustafa Centre and E!Hub @ Downtown East.

The MOH provides the list of places where infectious Covid-19 patients were for at least 30 minutes, and the time they were there, to get people who were at those places 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 the MOH's website.

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

Among the 22 new patients was one in the community, who was unlinked as of Monday.

The 35-year-old Bangladeshi man was detected as a result of rostered routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are staying outside dormitories. He did not show symptoms.

Three imported cases were also announced on Monday. All arrived in Singapore on Aug 26, and were confirmed positive on Sunday.

Two of them came from India. One is a permanent resident, while the other is a dependant's pass holder.

The third imported case is a work permit holder currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines.

All three were serving 14-day stay-home notices and tested while staying at dedicated facilities.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 18 new coronavirus patients announced on Monday.

Of these 18 cases, nine had been identified as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during their quarantine period.

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

No new clusters were announced on Monday.

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

However, the number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has increased from a daily average of one case to two over the same period.

With 75 cases discharged on Monday, 56,393 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 51 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 558 are recuperating in community facilities.

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

Globally the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 27.2 million people. More than 887,000 people have died.

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