COVID-19: MOH confirms 102 new cases, 2 Singaporeans among 6 imported infections
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 102 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Thursday (13 August) noon, taking the country’s total case count to 55,497.
Of the new cases, five are in the community, six are imported, and the remaining 91 are foreign workers residing in dormitories.
Of the community cases, four were picked up as a result of surveillance and screening, and one had already been placed on quarantine earlier. All of them are asymptomatic, and were detected through testing.
There is one case in the community (case 55562) who had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case. She had been placed on quarantine earlier, and was tested during quarantine to determine her status.
Four of the community cases are currently unlinked. Of these, three cases (Nos. 55559, 55570 and 55576) were identified as a result of periodic screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dormitories. The remaining case (No. 55577) was tested as part of efforts to screen individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations. Serological tests were conducted for them, and the results for all four cases have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections.
Golden Village VivoCity has been added by the MOH to the list of public places visited by COVID-19 cases in the community recently.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.
Amongst the six imported cases, two are Singaporeans who returned to Singapore from the Philippines on 11 August (case 55482) and from the UAE on 1 August (case 55561). They had both been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities. They had been tested while serving their SHN.
The remaining cases (cases 55555, 55556, 55557 and 55558) are seamen who are Special Pass holders. They arrived in Singapore from India on 8 August on a vessel, where they had not disembarked from. They subsequently reported symptoms and were swabbed while on the vessel, where they had remained until their test results came back positive for COVID-19. They were then conveyed to a hospital.
The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories. There are currently about 21,700 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period. These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends.
Over 50,700 discharged; none in ICU
With 216 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Thursday, 50,736 cases – some 91 per cent of the tally – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 91 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 4,643 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.
“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.
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