10 new COVID-19 infections in Singapore, including 1 in the community, 5 imported cases

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 10 new COVID-19 infections on Friday (Oct 2), including one in the community and five imported cases.

All new cases today were asymptomatic, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said. 

The sole community case - Case 57941 - is a work permit holder, said the ministry.

The 33-year-old man was detected as a result of rostered routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories. 

Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress, said the ministry. 

All identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and placed on quarantine. 

"Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of fewer than one case per day in the past two weeks," said MOH. 

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of fewer than one case per day in the past two weeks.

IMPORTED CASES FROM INDIA, INDONESIA

The five imported cases had all been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving their notice, said MOH.

Among the imported cases are a Singaporean and a permanent resident who returned from India on Sep 18 and Sep 20. 

Another case is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Indonesia on Sep 19. The six-year-old was allowed entry into Singapore as her parent is a Singaporean, said the ministry. 

The remaining imported cases are a work permit holder currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Indonesia on Sep 20, and a dependant’s pass holder who arrived from India on Sep 16.

Four of the cases reported on Friday reside in dormitories, said MOH. One of the cases had been identified earlier as a contact of previous cases and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. 

He was tested during quarantine to determine his status. The remaining three cases were detected through surveillance testing.

MOH added in the release that a total of 22 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. 

In all, 57,534 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

There are currently 48 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, while 185 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

One new location - Walking on Sunshine at Orchard Central - was added to the list of places visited by COVID-19 cases during their infectious period. 

The hair salon/cafe was listed twice with the same time window (9.45am to 7.45pm) on both days - Sep 25 and Sep 26.

Singapore's COVID-19 tally now stands at 57,794.

READ: Singapore's daily count of imported cases exceeds dormitory infections for the first time in 6 months

On Thursday, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases imported into Singapore from overseas surpassed the number of new infections among migrant workers living in dormitories for the first time in six months.

MOH reported 15 new imported cases and three new cases in migrant worker dormitories on Thursday.

UPDATED MAP: All the places that COVID-19 community cases visited while they were infectious

The last time the daily count of imported cases exceeded those in the migrant worker dormitories was on Apr 1, about a week after authorities started banning short-term visitors from entering the country.

Singapore has said it will lift border restrictions for short-term visitors from Australia, excluding Victoria state, and Vietnam from Oct 8.

This follows the lifting of border restrictions for visitors from Brunei and New Zealand from Sep 8.

Also on Thursday, two community cases were removed from the tally after having been reported by MOH in an earlier preliminary daily update.

The two were removed after further tests confirmed they were not infected. Initial test results for cases 57,918 and 57,919 had been borderline-positive, said MOH.

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