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COVID-19: 5 Singaporeans part of family cluster across 2 households among 54 new cases

Men wearing face masks walk past an art installation in the financial business district in Singapore on August 11, 2020. - Singapore's virus-hammered economy shrank almost 43 percent in the second quarter, in a sign that the country's first recession in more than a decade was deeper than initially estimated, official data showed on August 11. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported another 54 new cases of COVID-19 infection as of noon on Sunday (30 August), including eight Singaporeans, taking the country’s total to 56,771.

Of them, eight are community cases, seven are imported cases and the remaining 39 are migrant workers residing in dormitories.

The community cases comprised seven Singaporeans and one work pass holder.

Two were picked up as a result of surveillance and screening, and six had already been placed on quarantine earlier. Three of the cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through testing.

Seven of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Of these, six cases had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

Amongst them, five cases (56823, 56827, 56830, 56831 and 56832) are part of a family cluster involving individuals across two households. “These individuals had participated in family gatherings, and investigations are ongoing to see if there were any breaches of safe distancing rules. We take a serious view of such breaches and will not hesitate to take enforcement actions against any offenders,” said the MOH.

Camera shop is new cluster

Another case (56826) is a colleague of case 56184 at SLR Revolution at Excelsior Shopping Centre, and had earlier been placed on quarantine. The camera shop has been confirmed as a new cluster with four cases.

As a precautionary measure following the detection of an earlier case (56626) who had visited the shop during case 56184’s infectious period, MOH has identified and contacted 240 individuals who had visited SLR Revolution between 15 August and 18 August, and facilitated COVID-19 testing for all of them, even though the risk of infection for visitors is assessed to be low. So far, a total of 224 individuals have been swabbed and the results are pending. MOH is facilitating testing for the remaining individuals.

The remaining case (56829) had gone to see a general practitioner under the Swab and Send Home (SASH) programme on 27 August and was diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI), and was administered with a swab test. Before the test result was ready, case 56828 was separately identified as a close contact of case 56740 and was placed on quarantine on 28 August. The test result from the clinic subsequently confirmed that this was a positive case.

There is one case in the community who is currently unlinked. Case 56851 was detected as a result of 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. In the meantime, 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.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of three per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.

Amongst the seven imported cases, one case (56816) is a four-year-old Singaporean girl, and four (56821, 56822, 56842 and 56852) are permanent residents. These cases returned to Singapore from Bangladesh on 17 August, India on 18 August and 22 August, the Philippines on 18 August and UAE on 8 August.

Another case (56824) is a work permit holder currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines on 18 August. The remaining case (56820) is a dependant’s pass holder who arrived from Pakistan on 18 August. All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN at dedicated facilities.

Amongst the 39 cases residing in dormitories, 22 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

The remaining 17 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as bi-weekly routine testing of workers living in dormitories and testing of those with ARI symptoms.

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, serological tests have been conducted to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections. The serological test results for 14 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections.

Over 55,500 cases discharged; no patient in ICU

With 139 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Sunday, 55,586 cases have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 74 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 1,084 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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