399 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 9 in the community and 3 imported cases
- The majority of newly confirmed cases are migrant workers staying at dormitories
- For the other new cases, nine are in the community and three are imported
- There are no infections at the Woodlands Lodge II and SSKBJV Dormitory so they are no longer classified as disease clusters
- The NTUC FairPrice outlet at Joo Chiat Complex is added as a place visited by a person or persons who have the coronavirus and were infectious
SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 399 new cases of Covid-19, including nine that are in the community, three that are imported and 387 who are migrant workers staying in dormitories.
In a press release on Tuesday (July 21), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the three imported cases include two work pass holders and one special pass holder.
The two male work pass holders, aged 34 and 29, had arrived from India on July 9 and they both tested positive for the coronavirus while serving their 14-day stay-home notice.
The third imported case — a 22-year-old man — had arrived in Singapore from the Philippines on July 19 and was taken directly to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases because he was showing symptoms.
“He is a seaman currently holding a special pass who will join a vessel that called in our port,” MOH said.
For the nine cases in the community, one is a Singaporean, three are work pass holders and five are work permit holders.
Three of these community cases are linked to previous cases or clusters while the remaining six have no links.
MOH said that investigations are ongoing for the cases with no known sources of infection.
“In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases,” it said.
“We will also conduct serological tests for their household contacts to determine if these cases could have been infected by them.”
A serological test is used to check if a person had an infection in the past, or on someone who is asymptomatic or has a very low viral load.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from an average of 13 a day in the week before, to an average of 10 a day in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone down slightly from an average of seven a day in the week before, to an average of six a day in the past week.
“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH said.
TWO CLUSTERS CLOSED
MOH also said that the inter-agency task force handling the infection controls at foreign worker dormitories has been “systematically and progressively clearing dormitories through aggressive testing of migrant workers residing in dormitories”.
As a result, the Woodlands Lodge II and SSKBJV Dormitory have been cleared of the disease and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for coronavirus.
The clusters at these two places are thus closed, MOH said.
FAIRPRICE BRANCH ADDED TO MOH LIST
As for public places visited by a person or persons who have the coronavirus when they were in the infectious period, the ministry has added one more to its list: The NTUC FairPrice supermarket outlet at Joo Chiat Complex.
The visiting date and time was on July 13 between 7.35pm and 8.40pm.
MOH said that it would have already notified individuals who were identified as close contacts of the confirmed cases.
"As a precautionary measure, persons who had been at this location during the specified timing should monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit."
UPDATES ON THE REMAINING CASES
In all, the total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 48,434.
Of these, 44,584 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 213 on Tuesday.
There are still 170 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving.
Another 3,653 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-seven people have died from complications due to Covid-19.
