There were 10 new coronavirus cases confirmed yesterday, including a Lebanese national found to be infected with Covid-19 after he had completed part of his stay-home notice (SHN) at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said last night that he was transferred to another dedicated facility last Sunday, when the ministry began investigations into 13 Covid-19 cases who had served their SHN at the hotel.
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 37-year-old Lebanese man likely picked up Covid-19 after arrival in Singapore from Qatar, according to facts laid out by MOH.
The short-term visit pass holder was swabbed for Covid-19 on Dec 19 and 21 and his test results were negative. His swab on Dec 24, at the end of his SHN, came back positive, while his serological test result was negative. The latter test determines if his infection was an old one.
"Investigations are ongoing to assess if he could be linked to the 13 cases," said MOH.
All 10 cases announced by MOH yesterday were imported.
The new cases, of which none is from the community or workers' dormitories, take Singapore's total to 58,519.
All of them had been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. They were all asymptomatic.
Two of the new cases are Singaporeans who had returned from Britain.
Five are Indian nationals who had arrived from their home country. The remaining two cases are a Bangladeshi and a Malaysian, who had arrived from Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively.
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Update on cases
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New cases: 10
Imported: 10 (2 Singaporeans, 2 work permit holders, 3 dependant's pass holders, 3 short-term visit pass holders)
In community: 0
In dormitories: 0
New community cases in the past week: 1 (1 unlinked case)
Active cases: 128
In hospitals: 37 (0 in ICU)
In community facilities: 91
Deaths: 29
Patients with Covid-19 who died from other causes: 15
Total discharged: 58,347
Discharged yesterday: 10
TOTAL CASES: 58,519
MOH said the Malaysian is a caregiver to an individual who was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment.
It added that epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, close contacts of the cases have been isolated, placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.
MOH will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the cases could have been infected by them.
