28 new Covid-19 infections in Singapore, including 2 in the community
SINGAPORE — There are two new community cases and 26 imported cases of Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported on Tuesday (Jan 5).
Five of the 26 imported cases are from a cluster onboard a bunker tanker NewOcean 6, but they have been placed on quarantine and then tested at a government quarantine facility, MOH said. These crew members had not disembarked from the vessel before that.
Of the two community cases, one has no known source of infection while the other is linked to previous cases.
The case with no links is a 49 year-old male Indian national, who is a short-term visit pass holder.
He arrived from India on Dec 10 to visit his Singaporean spouse and served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until Dec 24.
His pre-departure test taken in India on Dec 6 was negative, and another test on Dec 21 taken during his stay-home notice was also negative.
Having no symptoms, he was detected when he took a pre-departure test on Jan 3 before his return to India.
The result came back positive the next day and he was taken to Mount Elizabeth Hospital. His serological test result has come back positive, which indicates a likely past infection, MOH said.
The other community case is a 55 year-old Singaporean cargo officer who lives on Tah Ching Road near Jurong Lake Gardens.
He was onboard bunker tanker NewOcean 6 from Dec 21 to 23, was at home after that, and on the tanker again from Dec 28 to Jan 2.
His earlier tests from Rostered Routine Testing — the last being on Dec 23 — had been negative for Covid-19 infection, MOH said.
On Dec 31, he was placed on quarantine after he was identified as a close contact of a previously reported case who is a crew member of the same vessel.
He was taken to a government quarantine facility on Jan 2 and tested positive on Jan 3 before he was moved to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
For the 26 imported cases, MOH said that they had already been placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
They include:
Two Singaporeans and two permanent residents
Two work pass holders who arrived from the United Arab Emirates
Twenty work permit holders from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines. Of these, 13 are foreign domestic workers and five are contacts or have links to the NewOcean 6 cluster
MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has increased from one case in the week before to 11 cases in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from one case in the week before to four cases in the past week.
UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES
The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 58,749.
Of these, 58,517 have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 20 on Tuesday.
There are 60 patients still in hospital, but most of them are stable or improving. Only one patient is in critical condition under intensive care.
Another 143 cases isolated and cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-nine people have died from complications due to the disease.
