Man who issues monitoring devices at Changi Airport to people on stay-home notice is sole Covid-19 community case
SINGAPORE — A Singaporean man whose job was to issue electronic monitoring devices to people serving stay-home notices was the sole Covid-19 community case reported on Sunday (Feb 7).
He had no links to past infections, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
Giving more details on the man, the ministry said he is a 43-year-old male Singaporean who was deployed to work at Changi Airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.
"His job entails issuing electronic monitoring devices to individuals who will be serving stay-home notices outside of dedicated facilities, and helping them to wear the devices," MOH said.
"While on duty, he wears a surgical mask, face shield and gloves."
The man had no symptoms and his infection was detected when he was tested on Feb 4.
His earlier tests — the last of which was on Jan 22 — returned negative.
His serology test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Apart from the man, there were 23 imported cases reported on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in Singapore to 59,699.
Among the 23 imported cases:
Two are Singaporeans with travel histories to Canada, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
One is a permanent resident who returned from India
Six are dependant's pass holders who arrived from India, Spain, the UAE and the United States
Five are work pass holders who came from Spain and the UAE
Eight are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines, of whom three are foreign domestic workers
One is a short-term visit pass holder who came from India for studies in Singapore
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from three cases in the week before to two in the past week, MOH said.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at two cases per week in the past fortnight.
UPDATE ON CONDITION OF CONFIRMED CASES
In all, 59,433 have fully recovered from the infection, including the 28 discharged on Sunday.
There are 36 patients who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Another 201 with mild symptoms, or who are clinically well but still test positive for the disease, are isolated at community facilities.
Twenty-nine people have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.
