Engineer from Parkway Pantai healthcare group is sole Covid-19 community case, 14 other cases imported
A 39-year-old male Singapore permanent resident was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases after he was found to have Covid-19 before leaving for a trip.
- A 39-year-old Singapore permanent resident has contracted Covid-19
- The systems engineer at healthcare group Parkway Pantai was diagnosed after taking a test before a trip
- He has no symptoms and no known source of infection
- He had returned to Singapore from India on Jan 24 and tested negative at the end of his stay-home notice
SINGAPORE — Singapore reported 15 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday (April 21), one of whom works as a systems engineer at healthcare group Parkway Pantai.
The engineer, a 39-year-old male Singapore permanent resident, had been working from home and had not returned to his workplace, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement.
He has no symptoms and there are no links found yet to previous confirmed cases here.
The man had travelled to India between July 9 last year and Jan 24 this year.
When he returned to Singapore on Jan 24, he served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until Feb 7.
His test taken a day before the end of his isolation period was negative, MOH said.
On April 19, he took a pre-departure test in preparation for a trip and was detected to have the virus the next day.
He was then taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
“His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result (for past infection) has come back positive,” the ministry said.
He could be shedding “minute fragments” of the virus RNA (viral ribonucleic acid) from a past infection, which are no longer transmissible or infective to others, it added.
“But given that we are not able to definitively conclude when he had been infected, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure,” MOH said.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has jumped to nine cases in the past week from two cases in the week before.
The number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has also risen to five cases in the past week from one case in the week before.
IMPORTED CASES
Apart from the engineer, there were 14 imported cases of Covid-19 reported on Wednesday, all of whom had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.
They were:
Two Singapore permanent residents who returned from India
Two dependant's pass holders who arrived from India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
A student’s pass holder who came from India
Seven work pass holders who arrived from India, Luxembourg, Nepal, the Netherlands, UAE and the United Kingdom
A work permit holder who came from Indonesia and is a foreign domestic worker
A short-term visit pass holder from India who was planning to visit his Singaporean family member
UPDATE ON REMAINING CASES
The total number of infections in Singapore is now 60,880.
Of these, 60,576 people have fully recovered and been discharged, including 36 on Wednesday.
There are still 70 patients in hospitals. Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition under intensive care, MOH said.
Another 204 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.
Thirty people have died from complications due to the disease.
