COVID-19: 47 new cases in Singapore asymptomatic; additional S11 dorm cluster

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 47 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Tuesday (8 September) afternoon, bringing the country’s total to 57,091.

It also announced an additional cluster of 14 linked cases at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol at 2 Seletar North Link.

All 47 new cases are asymptomatic and were proactively detected and of them, none are classified as cases in the community, while one is an imported case.

The remaining 46 cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, of which 25 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined.

Overall, two per cent of the new cases have no established links.

The sole imported case – 57186 – is a one-year-old Singaporean who returned to Singapore from India on 24 August. He had been placed on the 14-day stay-home notice upon his arrival here and was tested while serving the notice at a dedicated facility.

The MOH noted 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.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased, from an average of one case per day in the week before, to an average of two per day in the past week.

Among the 46 cases residing in dorms, 25 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases and were tested during the quarantine.

The remaining 21 cases were detected through surveillance testing. Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, or swab test, serological tests were conducted to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections, the MOH said.

“The serological test results for four cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections,” the ministry added.

Foreign workers living in dorms make up 94.4 per cent – or 53,915 cases – of Singapore’s total COVID-19 tally.

All visitors to SLR Revolution tested negative

Separately, the MOH announced that it has completed the screening and testing of individuals who had visited SLR Revolution at Excelsior Shopping Centre between 15 and 18 August.

A total of 254 visitors were tested, and all the results have come back negative, it added.

“This was a precautionary measure following the detection of three cases (56184, 56626 and 56826) who had worked at or visited the shop, even though the risk of infection for visitors is assessed to be low,” said the ministry.

Some 99% of total cases have recovered

With 53 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Tuesday, 56,461 cases – or 98.9% of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 48 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 555 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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