Almost all 15 new COVID cases in Singapore asymptomatic, including 1-year-old boy

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 15 new COVID-19 cases as of Monday (28 September), taking Singapore’s total case count to 57,715.

All but two of the 15 new cases are asymptomatic and were proactively detected, said the MOH.

Of them, two are cases in the community while six are imported, including a one-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.

The remaining seven cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, of which four had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined.

Overall, seven per cent of the new cases have no established links.

Both cases in the community are 26-year-old male work permit holders from Malaysia. One of them, case 57847 and currently unlinked, was tested as part of the proactive screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dorms, and had gone to work at Changi Airport.

The other, case 57861, had been identified as his household contact.

When contacted by MOH on 27 September after case 57847 was confirmed with COVID-19, case 57861 reported having symptoms and was immediately conveyed to a hospital for a swab, said the MOH. He subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, the ministry added.

Epidemiological investigations of the unlinked case are in progress while all the identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period, the MOH said.

“We will also conduct serological tests for his other household contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them,” it added.

The MOH noted that 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. Similarly, 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.

Amongst the six asymptomatic imported cases, one is a permanent resident who had returned to Singapore from India on 16 September. Another three are work pass or permit holders currently employed here who arrived from France, the Philippines, and India on 16 September.

The remaining two are dependant’s pass holders – a one-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl – who arrived from India on 15 September.

All of them had been placed on 14-day stay-home notice upon their arrival here and were tested while serving their notice at dedicated facilities.

3 cases in dorms detected via surveillance testing

Amongst the seven cases residing in dorms, four had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and were tested during quarantine, said the MOH.

The remaining three cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as the bi-weekly rostered routine testing of workers living in dorms, it added.

Separately, the ministry announced the closure of three dorm clusters: Changi Lodge II at 80 Tanah Merah Coast Road, as well as dorms at 35 Kian Teck Way and 66 Tech Park Crescent.

No cases have been linked to these dorms for the past two incubation periods, or 28 days, said the MOH.

Of Singapore’s COVID-19 tally, 54,410 – or 94.3 per cent – are foreign workers living in dorms.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 26 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Monday, 57,393 cases – or 99.4 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 36 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 259 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

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