Covid-19: Foreign domestic worker sole community case, 7 others imported
SINGAPORE — The sole Covid-19 community case reported in Singapore on Thursday (March 11) was a 37-year-old foreign domestic worker, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
The Indonesian woman had arrived in Singapore on Jan 20 and served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until Feb 3.
Her swab test conducted during quarantine on Feb 2 was negative for the coronavirus, as was her pre-departure test that was taken in Indonesia on Jan 18.
In its evening update of the coronavirus situation here, MOH said that the woman did not have any symptoms.
She was detected on Tuesday when she was tested as part of the ministry’s investigation into a previously confirmed case who was also an Indonesian foreign domestic worker.
As an added precaution, MOH tested all the attendees of its Settling-In Programme for first-time foreign domestic workers getting jobs in Singapore, which both the women attended on Feb 4.
This was conducted even though they were not close contacts, it said.
The 37-year-old woman’s test result came back positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and she was then taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
Her serological test result has come back positive, which indicates a likely past infection.
“However, as we are unable to definitively confirm her date of infection, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure,” the ministry said.
“Based on our epidemiological investigations, (both cases) are likely to have been separately infected earlier and there is currently no evidence that the two cases are linked.”
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down slightly from three in the week before to two in the past week, MOH said.
The number of cases with no links in the community has remained stable at two a week in the past two weeks.
IMPORTED CASES
There were seven imported cases of Covid-19 registered on Thursday and all had been placed on stay-home notices upon their arrival here.
They are:
One Singaporean who returned from Qatar
One student’s pass holder who arrived from India
One long-term visit pass holder who came from India
Four work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India and Malaysia
UPDATE ON REMAINING CASES
The total number of infections in Singapore is now 60,070.
Of these, 59,939 people have fully recovered and been discharged, including 28 on Thursday.
There are still 21 patients in hospitals.
“Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit,” MOH said.
Another 81 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-nine people have died from complications due to the disease.
