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All 29 new COVID cases in S'pore imported; 234 Crowne Plaza Changi Airport staff tested negative

Pedestrians walking along a promenade in Singapore.
Pedestrians walking along a promenade in Singapore. (PHOTO: Vivek Prakash/Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 29 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Saturday (9 January), taking the country’s total case count to 58,865.

All new cases are imported and there are no new local transmissions.

“Amongst the new cases today, 25 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while four were symptomatic,” said the MOH.

Amongst the 29 imported cases, four are Singaporeans and one is a permanent resident who returned from India, Indonesia, Sweden, and the UK.

Three others are dependant’s pass holders who arrived from the United Arab Emirates, India, and the Maldives, while one is a student’s pass holder who arrived from India.

Five are work pass holders who arrived from India and the United Arab Emirates. A total of 13 cases are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar, of whom three are foreign domestic workers.

One is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from India to visit her spouse who is a PR.

The remaining case is a special pass holder who is a sea crew member. The man arrived from Indonesia onboard a vessel and was swabbed upon his arrival.

He was conveyed to the hospital when his test result came back positive for COVID-19.

All 29 imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival here and were subsequently tested, said the MOH.

Separately, the ministry said that 234 staff working at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport have tested negative for COVID-19, following its completion of the testing operation.

Three COVID-19 cases who work at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport are currently being investigated.

“From our preliminary investigations, we cannot exclude that transmissions could have occurred at the hotel,” said the MOH.

The ministry announced on Thursday that Crowne Plaza Changi Airport would be closed for two weeks from Friday to 21 January, including its restaurant and event spaces.

Sri Aachi Aappakadai at 45 Chander Road was also added to the list of public venues visited by COVID-19 community cases while infectious.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 10 cases in the week before to eight cases in the past week.

“The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from four cases in the week before to five cases in the past week,” it added.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 31 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 58,611 cases – or 99.6 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 67 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and one is in the intensive care unit.

A total of 158 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.

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