Advertisement

COVID-19: Singapore confirms 21 new cases, all imported

Crowds thronged Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt
Crowds thronged Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt. (PHOTO: Zakaria Zainal/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) detected 21 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Wednesday (23 December), taking the country’s total case count to 58,482.

There are no new cases of locally-transmitted infection. “Amongst the new cases today, 20 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 1 was symptomatic,” said the MOH.

Separately, the ministry also confirmed the city-state’s first case infected with a new variant of the novel coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in the UK. Eleven others have tested preliminarily positive for the B.1.1.7 strain.

Of the 21 imported cases, three are Singaporeans and five are permanent residents who returned from Canada, India, and the UK.

Nine are foreign domestic workers who arrived from Indonesia, India and Myanmar, while two others are student’s pass holders who arrived from India.

The remaining two cases are short-term visit pass holders – one had arrived from India to visit his Singaporean relatives and another from Sweden to board a ship docked here as a crew member.

All imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival here and were subsequently tested, said the MOH.

The ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one case in the past week who is currently unlinked.

Singapore is due to enter Phase 3 of reopening on 28 December.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 18 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Wednesday, 58,322 cases – or 99.8 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 34 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none are in the intensive care unit.

A total of 97 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.

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

Related stories:

The UK coronavirus variant: what we know

The coronavirus is mutating. What does that mean?

Visitors with recent travel history to UK, New South Wales to be barred from entering Singapore

Lawrence Wong hopes details on COVID-19 vaccination roll-out will be ready in Jan: report

POLL: Who's your pick as the top newsmaker of 2020?