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COVID-19: Singapore confirms 42 new cases, 4 in the community

A woman walks past a Singapore Airlines check-in counter at a Changi International Airport terminal in Singapore on September 11, 2020. - Singapore Airlines said on September 10 it was cutting about 4,300 jobs -- around 20 percent of its workforce -- due to the coronavirus, and warned any recovery would be "long and fraught with uncertainty". (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman walks past a Singapore Airlines check-in counter at a Changi International Airport terminal in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 42 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (12 September), bringing the country’s total to 57,357.

Of them, four cases are in the community, 10 are imported infections and the remaining 28 are cases residing in dormitories.

Among the community cases, three were picked up as a result of proactive surveillance and screening, and one had already been placed on quarantine earlier. All four cases – three Indian nationals and a Singapore permanent resident – are asymptomatic.

All cases in the community today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Case 57470 had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. He was tested during quarantine to determine his status, even though he is asymptomatic. Case 57463 was tested as part of efforts to screen individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations, and case 57461 was swabbed as part of case-finding efforts. The remaining case 57495 was detected as a result of routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of three cases per day in the week before, to an average of two per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week.

Amongst the 10 imported cases, two (cases 57473 and 57474) are Singaporeans and five (cases 57475, 57476, 57477, 57481 and 57482) are Singapore permanent residents who returned to Singapore from India on 30 August and 31 August.

Another two (cases 57462 and 57489) are work pass holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Germany on 30 August and the Philippines on 29 August. The remaining case 57468, a short-term visit pass holder, is the spouse of a Singaporean who arrived from India on 5 September.

All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.

Amongst the 28 cases residing in dormitories, 16 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status. The remaining 12 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as the bi-weekly routine testing of workers living in dormitories.

Some 99% of total cases have recovered

With 92 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 56,699 cases – or 98.9% of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 54 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 577 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 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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