Student staying on Yale-NUS campus among nine local cases

A National University of Singapore (NUS) student was among nine community cases confirmed yesterday by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

The student, a 20-year-old male Indian national who stays on the Yale-NUS College campus, last attended classes on April 12.

He had been in India from March 21 last year to Jan 20 this year, and was a close contact of two confirmed Covid-19 cases while there.

He developed a fever, sore throat and body aches on Monday and isolated himself in his room.

He was tested for Covid-19 at the NUS University Health Centre on Wednesday and his result came back positive on Thursday.

MOH said his CT (cycle threshold) value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result has come back positive. This suggests he could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection which is no longer transmissible and infective to others, said MOH.

The eight other cases in the community were linked to previous cases. Two of the cases, a 33-year-old female Indian national and her four-year-old daughter, are linked to an earlier case - a 34-year-old male Indian national who is a senior research fellow at NUS and was confirmed positive on April 15.

Another two are linked to a 39-year-old Vietnamese woman who works as a cleaner at a community care facility in Tuas South and was confirmed positive on Wednesday. One of them, a 41-year-old Malaysian man, works as a sales assistant at New Odense(s) Confectionery & Bakery in Woodlands, and is the Vietnamese woman's household contact, while the other, a 26-year-old female permanent resident, is both a household contact and a colleague of the woman.

The last four community cases are linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital cluster, which now comprises 13 cases. One is a 41-year-old female Chinese national who works as a cleaner, and was deployed to the hospital's Ward 9D, where the cluster began.

Another case, a 77-year-old Singaporean woman, was admitted to Ward 9D on April 22. After being discharged to United Medicare Centre (Toa Payoh) Nursing Home on Tuesday, she was tested on Wednesday. Her test returned positive on the same day. The hospital has stopped all patient transfers to intermediate and long-term care facilities until swabs for patients and staff in lockdown wards are done and cleared.

The third new case in the hospital cluster is a 65-year-old Singaporean woman who is a patient in Ward 9C, while the last case is a 36-year-old Singaporean male doctor at the National Neuroscience Institute, located within the hospital.

Imported: 15 (2 Singaporeans, 2 permanent residents, 3 dependant's pass holders, 1 work pass holder, 6 work permit holders, 1 long-term visit pass holder)

In community: 9

In dormitories: 0

New community cases in the past week: 35 (6 unlinked cases)

Active cases: 364

In hospitals: 113 (0 in ICU)

In community facilities: 251

Deaths: 30

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

Total discharged: 60,736

Discharged yesterday: 13

TOTAL CASES: 61,145

Meanwhile, 15 new imported cases were announced yesterday.

The number of new cases in the community increased from 10 two weeks ago to 35 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week also increased from five cases to six over the same period.