MBS Casino, Seletar Mall visited by infectious coronavirus patients

SINGAPORE - The Marina Bay Sands Casino and Seletar Mall are among places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were infectious, said the Health Ministry on Tuesday (July 14) at 12.30am in a statement dated July 13.

A Giant supermarket outlet at The Bedok Market Place at 348 Bedok Road was also newly added to the list of places visited by infectious patients.

The ministry provides the list of locations and the times that infectious Covid-19 patients have visited for at least 30 minutes to get those who were at these places at the specific periods 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 Ministry of Health's (MOH) website.

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

The ministry also ordered a company to shut its premises for 14 days after three cases emerged and the company was found to have breached safe management and safe distancing measures.

The three cases are employees of Mini Environment Service at 120 Lower Delta Road. The ministry has directed that the workplace be closed for two weeks, from July 13 to July 26, under the Infectious Diseases Act to prevent further spread at the workplace. The closure will allow the company to review and tighten its safe management measures, said the MOH.

Close contacts of the three cases had been placed on quarantine earlier, and all its employees will also be placed under health surveillance and tested for Covid-19.

The 11 community cases reported on Monday comprise one Singaporean, one permanent resident, six work pass holders and three work permit holders.

Four of the community cases are linked to previous cases or clusters. Of these, two had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been tested during their quarantine to determine their status, even though they are asymptomatic.

Another patient was swabbed as he works in essential services.

The remaining linked patient was tested as part of the ministry's efforts to screen individuals working in front-line Covid-19 operations.

The other seven of the community cases are currently unlinked.

Of these, six are asymptomatic, and were identified from the ministry's periodic screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dormitories.

The last patient was tested for the virus after he sought treatment for symptoms.

Epidemiological investigations of the unlinked cases are being done.

Among the five imported cases announced on Monday, two are permanent residents who had returned to Singapore from India on July 6 and from Pakistan on June 20.

Another two are work pass holders who are currently employed in Singapore. They arrived in Singapore from the Philippines on June 30.

The remaining patient is a dependant's pass holder who returned to Singapore from the United States on June 30.

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

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the remaining 306 cases, taking Singapore's total to 46,283.

The MOH also announced a new cluster in a dormitory at 59H Tuas South Avenue 1.

The ministry said that the average number of new cases in the community per day had increased to 14 in the past week from 12 in the week before.

The average number of unlinked cases in the community per day also increased to eight in the past week from six in the week before.

As of Monday, 166 confirmed cases were still in hospital, with one of them in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 3,550 were being isolated and cared for at community facilities, which are for those with mild symptoms or who are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Singapore has had 26 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 14 who tested positive have died of other causes.