29 new COVID cases in Singapore, all imported and asymptomatic

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 29 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Sunday (31 January), taking the country’s total case count to 59,536.

There are no new cases of locally-transmitted infection. “All new cases today are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance,” said the MOH.

Among the 29 imported cases, one is a 16-year-old Singaporean girl, and three are permanent residents who returned from India and the UK.

One of the PRs is a 36-year-old man who returned from a trip to India on 19 December last year and served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until 2 January.

His swab done on 31 December last year during the notice was negative for COVID-19.

The man, who is asymptomatic, was detected when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 29 January in preparation for another trip to India.

His test result came back positive the next day, and he was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result has also come back positive, said the MOH.

“Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on his travel history. He is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others,” the ministry added.

Two other imported cases are a dependant’s pass holder and a long-term visit pass holder who arrived from Nigeria. One other case is a 19-year-old male student’s pass holder who arrived from India.

Four others are work pass holders who arrived from India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Thirteen others are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Myanmar, of whom six are foreign domestic workers.

The remaining five are short-term visit pass holders, including one who arrived from India to study in Singapore. Three of them arrived from India, Myanmar, and Indonesia respectively to visit their family members who are Singaporeans or PRs.

The fifth short-term visit pass holder arrived from the Philippines for her upcoming marriage to her Singaporean fiancé.

All cases were placed on the stay-home notice upon their arrival here and were tested while serving their notices.

The ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 15 in the week before to three in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from three in the week before to two in the past week.

Two places were added to a list of public venues visited by community cases while infectious: Orchis Food Court in Changi Airport Terminal 1 and Kopitiam in Terminal 3. The former was visited five times between 23 to 28 January, while the latter was visited once on 25 January.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 32 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Sunday, 59,228 cases – or 99.5 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 44 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none in the intensive care unit.

A total of 235 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 228 confirmed cases reported from 25 to 31 January, 104 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 29 have tested negative, and 95 serology test results are pending.

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