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All 29 new COVID cases in Singapore imported, most foreign domestic workers

Visitors at the Poinsettia Wishes floral display, as part of the Christmas celebrations at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.
Visitors at the Poinsettia Wishes floral display, as part of the Christmas celebrations at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. (PHOTO: Reuters/Loriene Perera)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) detected 29 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Tuesday (22 December), taking the country’s total case count to 58,461.

This is the highest daily case tally in Singapore since it reported 34 new cases on 15 September. There are no new cases of locally-transmitted infection.

“Amongst the new cases today, 24 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while five were symptomatic,” said the MOH.

Of them, three are Singaporeans and one is a permanent resident who returned from the US, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and India.

Another 23 are work pass holders, including 21 foreign domestic workers, currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the US, Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

The remaining two cases are short-term visit pass holders – one had arrived from India to visit a Singaporean relative, and the other is a crew member of a ship that arrived from Indonesia.

The latter had not disembarked from the ship until he was conveyed to a quarantine facility.

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

Local case who toured Southern Islands tested serologically positive

The 39-year-old Singaporean woman, who was confirmed as an unlinked community case on Monday, tested positive on her serology test, indicating a likely past infection, said the MOH.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing.

The woman was detected when she was tested for COVID-19 before a scheduled cruise trip. She is the first community case reported in Singapore since 5 December.

She stays at Jurong West Street 93, and had been at work at Ruising Chemicals at 18 Boon Lay Way before her test result was confirmed.

She and her family had gone on a Southern Islands tour with two other families on 14 December, totaling 12 persons in all.

“Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant safe management measures,” said the MOH on Monday.

The number of new cases in the community has remained low, with Singapore due to enter Phase 3 of reopening in a week’s time.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 17 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Tuesday, 58,304 cases – or 99.8 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 47 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none are in the intensive care unit.

A total of 81 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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