COVID-19: Singapore confirms 50 new cases, two in the community
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed another 50 COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (22 August), taking the country’s total to 56,266.
Of them, two are community cases, while five are imported ones.
Both cases in the community are currently unlinked. Case 56320 – a 63-year-old Singaporean woman – had been tested after being admitted to a hospital for another medical condition. Case 56323 – a 56-year-old Singaporean woman – was detected “under our enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor”, the MOH said. She had gone to work at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College Central after the onset of symptoms on 19 August. Epidemiological investigations of the cases are in progress.
Among the five imported cases, Case 56322 is a Singaporean who returned to Singapore from Iran on 10 August. Cases 56319 and 56330 are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and the Netherlands on 10 August. Case 56329 is a Work Permit holder currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines on 9 August. The remaining case (Case 56308) – an 18-year-old woman – is a Student’s Pass holder who arrived from India on 8 August. All the cases had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities, the ministry said. They had been tested while serving their SHN.
“Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks,” said the MOH. “The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.”
Testing of migrant workers, staff in public bus industry
While the Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories, there are currently about 13,700 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period. These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends.
MOH also said that it has completed the screening and testing of all staff in the public bus industry who work at depots and interchanges. “This is a precautionary measure after we detected some cases at Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub. In all, more than 14,800 staff and close contacts of the cases had been tested using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test between 23 July and 15 August and all have tested negative, except 10 which have been announced earlier,” the ministry said.
Over 53,900 discharged; none in ICU
A total of 269 more patients were discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday. In all, 53,920 have fully recovered from the infection and been discharged.
Most of the 81 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none are in the intensive care unit.
A total of 2,238 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These patients have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
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.
“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.
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