One community case among 20 new Covid-19 patients

Mustafa Centre and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands were among places recently visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious. ST PHOTOS: JASON QUAH, LIM YAOHUI

Mustafa Centre, Rasapura Masters at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and vehicle inspection centre STAI Jalan Boon Lay are among places recently visited by Covid-19 patients while they were infectious, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday.

It added that there were 20 new cases of the coronavirus in Singapore.

The full list of locations that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes can be found on MOH's website.

Those who were at these places at the same time are advised to monitor their health for two weeks from their date of visit.

There is one community case among the new cases. He is a work permit holder from India and the case is currently unlinked.

He was detected as a result of MOH's rostered routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories.

MOH said that he was asymptomatic. Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress.

In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period. MOH will also conduct serological tests for his household contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them.

Five imported Covid-19 cases were also announced. They comprise one work pass holder, three work permit holders and one dependant's pass holder. Four of the cases are currently employed in Singapore and arrived from India and Indonesia on Sept 14, and Brazil and the Philippines on Sept 13. The dependant's pass holder arrived from India on Sept 15.

All of them had been placed on 14-day stay-home notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving their SHN at dedicated facilities.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the remaining 14 new coronavirus patients, taking Singapore's total to 57,685.

Seven had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission.

  • Update on cases

  • New cases: 20

    Imported: 5 (1 work pass holder, 3 work permit holders, 1 dependant's pass holder)

    In community: 1 (1 work permit holder)

    In dormitories: 14

    Active cases: 299

    In hospitals: 25 (0 in ICU)

    In community facilities: 274

    Deaths: 27

    Patients with Covid-19 who died of other causes: 15

    Total discharged: 57,344

    Discharged yesterday: 19

    TOTAL CASES: 57,685

They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

The remaining seven cases were detected through surveillance testing.

Of the new cases, 90 per cent are imported or linked to known cases or clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing, MOH said.

The number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of fewer than one case a day in the past two weeks.

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

With 19 cases discharged yesterday, 57,344 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 25 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 274 are recuperating in community facilities.

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

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on September 27, 2020, with the headline One community case among 20 new Covid-19 patients. Subscribe