25 new COVID cases in Singapore, including 1 community, 1 in dorm
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 25 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Friday (5 February), taking the country’s total case count to 59,649.
There are two new cases of locally-transmitted infection, one from the community and one from a dormitory. The remaining 23 are imported cases.
“Amongst the new cases today, 21 are asymptomatic and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while four were symptomatic,” said the MOH.
The community case is a 56-year-old Singaporean man who works as an import officer at Yusen Logistics and is based at Changi Cargo Megaplex 1 at 119 Airport Cargo Road. His job does not entail interaction with flight passengers.
He developed a cough on 2 February but did not seek medical attention and continued to go to work.
As he had been identified earlier as a contact of a tuberculosis (TB) case at his workplace, he went to the Tuberculosis Control Unit on 4 February for TB screening.
There, he was tested for COVID-19 after he reported his symptoms, the MOH said. His test result came back positive on the same day, and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
“His earlier test from a testing operation of airport cargo workers on 18 January had been negative for COVID-19 infection. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection,” said the MOH.
The second local infection is a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man, a work pass holder residing in a dormitory at 1 Soon Lee Street, who arrived in Singapore on 13 December last year.
He served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until 27 December and has not started work since his arrival here.
His swab done on 23 December during his notice was negative for COVID-19.
The man is asymptomatic, and was detected when his test taken on 4 February as part of the rostered routine testing (RRT) programme came back positive for COVID-19, said the MOH.
“His earlier test from RRT on 13 January was negative for COVID-19. His serology test has come back positive, but given the relatively long time interval between his travel and positive COVID-19 test, we have classified this case as locally transmitted,” added the ministry.
The MOH also said the number of new cases in the community has increased from none in the week before to four in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from none in the week before to three in the past week.
Several new places were also added to the list of public venues visited by community cases while infectious, including White Sands and its ValuDollar outlet, Jurong Point, and Sun Plaza. Three additional trips to Northpoint, which was already on the list, were also added.
UPDATE: 25 new COVID cases in Singapore, including 1 community, 1 in dorm https://t.co/6RrND9oZ2k pic.twitter.com/6B3pc0Q1pO
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23 imported cases, including 4-year-old girl
Among the 23 imported cases, three are Singaporeans and two are permanent residents who returned from Canada, India, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
Two others are dependant’s pass holders, including a four-year-old girl, who arrived from India and the United Arab Emirates.
Four others are work pass holders who arrived from India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Eleven cases are work permit holders who arrived from Indonesia and Myanmar, all of whom are foreign domestic workers.
The remaining case is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from the Netherlands for a work project in Singapore.
All imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice upon their arrival here and were tested while serving their notices.
99% of total cases have recovered, 1 in ICU
With 25 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Friday, 59,373 cases – or 99.5 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 41 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and one in the intensive care unit.
A total of 206 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.
Amongst the 200 confirmed cases reported from 30 January to 5 February, 114 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 34 have tested negative, and 52 serology test results are pending.
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