Seven new coronavirus cases; two locally transmitted

There were five imported cases, among the seven new Covid-19 cases reported on Oct 18, 2020. PHOTO: ST FILE

There were two new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 infection reported in Singapore yesterday, including one unlinked community case and one in a workers' dormitory, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were also five imported cases, who had all been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in the country. These seven new cases take Singapore's total number of Covid-19 infections to 57,911.

The sole community case reported yesterday was a 40-year-old male Bangladeshi national who works as a technician.

The man had not gone to work after he first developed symptoms last Wednesday. He was later detected through community testing of all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection. The patient also took a serological test that came back positive, which indicates a likely past infection.

Among the new cases reported yesterday, only two were symptomatic. The five asymptomatic cases were detected from proactive screening and surveillance.

Of the imported cases, four are currently employed in Singapore. Two were female work permit holders aged 40 and 27 respectively, who had arrived from the Philippines.

The other two were a 32-year-old male work pass holder who had arrived from Greece and a 48-year-old male work pass holder from France.

The remaining case is a 17-year-old male student pass holder from Guatemala.

The single Covid-19 case reported in the dormitories yesterday was detected through fortnightly routine testing of workers staying there.

Nine more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. This brings the number of people who have fully recovered from the infection to 57,792.

The ministry added that 40 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 36 are in community facilities.

Globally, the Covid-19 outbreak - which began last December - has infected more than 39.6 million people and killed over 1.11 million.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 19, 2020, with the headline Seven new coronavirus cases; two locally transmitted. Subscribe