Advertisement

COVID-19: Singapore confirms 18 new cases, 1 in the community

People at a beach at East Coast Park in Singapore.
People at a beach at East Coast Park in Singapore. (PHOTO: Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 18 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Wednesday (3 February), taking the country’s total case count to 59,602.

There is one new case of locally-transmitted infection in the community, while the remaining 17 infections are imported.

“Amongst the new cases today, 17 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while one was symptomatic,” said the MOH.

The sole community case is a 35-year-old female Indian national who is a long-term visit pass holder.

She travelled to India from 30 November last year and returned to Singapore on 6 January.

Her pre-departure test taken in India on 4 January before her flight was negative for COVID-19. Upon her return, she served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until 20 January.

Her swab done on 17 January during the notice was negative for COVID-19.

She is asymptomatic, and was detected when she took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 2 February in preparation for another trip to India.

Her test result came back positive the next day, and she was conveyed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in an ambulance.

“We have classified this case as locally transmitted while her serology test result is pending. Should her serology test come back positive, and epidemiological investigations assess that this is a past infection, we will reclassify this as an imported case,” said the MOH.

All identified close contacts of the woman, including her family members, have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.

Serological tests will also be conducted for the close contacts to determine if the case could have been infected by them.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from five in the week before to four in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from one in the week before to three in the past week.

17 imported cases; NewOcean 6 cluster closed

Amongst the 17 imported cases, two are a permanent resident and a 38-year-old male work pass holder – the lone symptomatic case – who both travelled from India.

Fourteen cases are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia, of whom nine are foreign domestic workers.

The remaining case is a sea crew member holding a special pass who arrived from Indonesia to board a vessel docked here. He was swabbed onboard the vessel and conveyed to a hospital when his test result came back positive for COVID-19.

All imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival here and were tested while serving the notice or during isolation.

The MOH also announced the closure of the NewOcean 6 cluster given that there have been no more cases linked to it for the past two incubation periods, or 28 days.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 19 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Wednesday, 59,301 cases – or 99.5 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 39 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none in the intensive care unit.

A total of 214 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 29 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.

Amongst the 211 confirmed cases reported from 28 January to 3 February, 119 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 41 have tested negative, and 51 serology test results are pending.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

Other Singapore stories:

Additional serology test for foreign domestic workers with travel history to higher-risk regions

350 asked to have TraceTogether data deleted over past month: Vivian Balakrishnan

Vivian Balakrishnan takes 'full responsibility' over TraceTogether saga

TraceTogether saga: 'Convenience' for police will compromise trust needed to win COVID-19 fight – Pritam