Stallholders in and around Tekka Centre to be tested for Covid-19 as part of community surveillance

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (Nov 25) said that it will extend its Covid-19 community surveillance testing to stallholders in and around the Tekka Centre in Little India.

The testing operations, which are part of the ministry’s progressive rollout in the community, will be conducted near the Little India MRT Station on Thursday.

The Government has been testing more extensively in the wider community to facilitate the early detection of the coronavirus and to obtain a better picture of the population prevalence to the disease.

This comes as Singapore gradually opens up its economy and resume social activities, the ministry said.

So far, MOH has conducted such surveillance testing for taxi and private-hire car drivers, as well as food delivery personnel and cashiers.

MOH first mooted the idea of the community surveillance testing back in August.  

Earlier on Wednesday, the ministry reported seven new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore, all of which were imported.

There are no cases in the wider community for the 15th consecutive day. MOH said that all the cases have no symptoms and were detected through its “proactive screening and surveillance”.

The seven imported cases comprise one permanent resident and one student’s pass holder who had both arrived from India.

Four other cases are work permit holders who had arrived in Singapore from India, Indonesia and the Philippines while the last case is a short-term visit pass holder from Ukraine who had arrived to board a ship docked here as a crew member.

They were all placed on stay-home notices upon their arrival.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low with no new cases reported in the past week, MOH said.

UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 58,190.

Of these, 58,091 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 12 on Wednesday.

There are still 42 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving, aside from one who is in intensive care.

Another 29 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-eight people have died from complications due to the disease.