Para-vet's wife, couple among four new cases in community

Singapore has reported a total of 59,083 coronavirus cases so far. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

A Singaporean couple and the wife of the K-9 unit para-veterinarian who earlier tested positive are among the four new coronavirus cases in the community reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday.

Altogether, there were 24 new cases reported, with one from Tuas South Dormitory and 19 imported.

One of the community cases is a 39-year-old man who works at The Singapore Scout Association in Bishan Street 12, handling mainly administrative work in the office. He is also a part-time bus driver with Westpoint Transit, plying specific routes for Cameron (Singapore) and GlaxoSmithKline Tuas.

His wife, also 39, works as an administrative officer at OCBC Tampines Centre One, but does not interact with customers.

Another patient is a 28-year-old woman, who is the spouse of the 32-year-old man who works as a para-veterinarian at the Singapore Police Force.

She had been identified as his close contact earlier and was placed on quarantine on Jan 13.

She works as a prison staff officer at Singapore Prison Service but does not interact with prison inmates.

She had mainly been working from home during this period, said MOH.

The last community case is a 33-year-old male Chinese national who is a work permit holder. He works as a food processing worker at Golden Bridge Foods Manufacturing.

He was swabbed but his test result came back negative on Jan 8. He went back to work on Jan 13, but developed a fever the day after and later tested positive.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from eight cases in the week before to six cases in the past week, said MOH.

There were also 19 imported cases, from countries such as India, the United Arab Emirates, France, Japan, Spain and Myanmar.

  • Update on cases

  • New cases: 24

    Imported: 19 (1 Singapore permanent resident, 3 dependant's pass holders, 2 student's pass holders, 5 work pass holders, 6 work permit holders, 1 special pass holder, 1 short-term visit pass holder)

    In community: 4

    In dormitories: 1

    New community cases in the past week: 6 (4 unlinked cases)

    Active cases: 270

    In hospitals: 54 (0 in ICU)

    In community facilities: 216

    Deaths: 29

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

    Total discharged: 58,769

    Discharged yesterday: 13

    TOTAL CASES: 59,083

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on January 17, 2021, with the headline Para-vet's wife, couple among four new cases in community. Subscribe