60 new Covid-19 infections in Singapore, including 10 imported cases and 3 in the community
SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 60 new cases of Covid-19, including 10 that are imported and three that are in the community. The remaining 47 are migrant workers staying in dormitories.
In a press release on Wednesday (Aug 26), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the 10 imported cases comprise two Singaporeans, three permanent residents, two work pass holders, two dependant’s pass holders and one long-term visit pass holder.
The 10 had returned from India, the Philippines and the United States between Aug 12 and 14.
They had all been placed on a 14-day stay-home notice and tested positive while serving their notices at dedicated facilities.
The three cases in the community involve a 66-year-old Singaporean man and two male work permit holders aged 29 and 34, the health ministry said.
The two work permit holders are linked to previous cases or clusters while the Singaporean man has no known links.
MOH said that investigations are ongoing for the unlinked case.
“In the meantime, all their identified close contacts 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.
“We will also conduct serological tests for their household contacts to determine if these cases could have been infected by them.”
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases a day in the past two weeks, MOH said.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case a day in the past 14 days.
Of the 47 fresh cases involving migrant workers in dormitories, 29 had been identified earlier as contacts of earlier cases.
The remaining 18 were detected through surveillance testing, such as the fortnightly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories and the testing of those with acute respiratory infection symptoms.
MOH said that besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, it has also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases in the dormitories are current or past infections.
“The serological test results for seven cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections,” it said.
UPDATES ON THE REMAINING CASES
The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 56,495.
Of these, 54,971 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 155 on Wednesday.
There are still 65 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. No one is in intensive care.
Another 1,432 patients are isolated and being cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-seven people have died from complications due to Covid-19.
