6 new COVID cases in S'pore; Quantum of the Seas guest found not to have infection

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed six new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Thursday (10 December), taking the country’s total case count to 58,297.

All six cases are imported, marking the fifth day in a row with no new local transmissions.

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

Four of them are Singaporeans and one is a permanent resident who returned from Indonesia, the US, UK, and Pakistan respectively.

The sixth case is a dependant’s pass holder who arrived from Russia.

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

The ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one case in the past week, who is linked to a previous case.

Guest from Quantum of the Seas confirmed not to have infection

A final confirmatory test conducted by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) on Thursday has confirmed that the 83-year-old male Singaporean onboard Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas does not have COVID-19 infection.

The MOH said that the sample taken from the individual on Thursday morning came back negative for the virus. This follows two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted on Wednesday by NPHL – one on a re-test of his original sample, and the other on a fresh sample, which had also come back negative.

“We have rescinded the quarantine orders of his close contacts, who had earlier been placed on quarantine as a precautionary measure while investigations were ongoing,” the ministry said.

“MOH will support the laboratory onboard the Quantum of the Seas in its review of its testing processes.”

The elderly passenger had fallen ill with diarrhoea and tested positive for the infection on Wednesday, forcing the cruise ship to turn back on the third day of a four-day voyage.

99% of total cases have recovered

With six more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Thursday, 58,188 cases – or 99.8 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 20 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none are in the intensive care unit.

A total of 60 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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