COVID-19: Singapore confirms 23 new cases including 5 in community
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 23 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of noon on Saturday (24 April), taking the country's total case count to 60,966.
Of these, five are cases in the community and 18 are imported. One of the community cases completed his vaccine dose more than a month ago.
In a press release, the ministry said that the five cases had already been placed on quarantine earlier and four of them were close contacts of a previously announced case.
Amongst the new cases, 17 are asymptomatic and were detected via proactive screening and surveillance, while six were symptomatic.
One community case already vaccinated
Case 62373 is a 45 year-old male permanent resident who is a senior executive at Wirana Shipping Corporation. He received his second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on 19 March.
His parents arrived from India on 15 April. His father tested positive for COVID-19 for his on-arrival swab, and was admitted to a hospital. His mother was placed on quarantine from 16-30 April and tested negative twice.
While Case 62373 had not travelled to India with his parents, he requested to take care of his mother at the quarantine facility, and moved into the same room as her on 16 April, where he had remained.
On 24 April, he was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Four sea crew infected
Meanwhile, cases 62348, 62349, 62350 and 62365 are sea crew working on board the bunker tanker MT ALLI. They had not disembarked from the vessel except for COVID-19 testing or vaccination. As they had been identified as close contacts of Case 62113, they were quarantined on 16 April.
They were tested for the coronavirus on 22 April, and their test results came back positive on the same day. Their serology test results are pending.
Cases 62348 and 62350 received their first doses of a vaccine on 15 April and 7 April respectively. As it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination, they were likely to have been infected before they were conferred protection after vaccination, said MOH.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from seven cases in the week before to 11 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from three in the week before to four in the past week.
Amongst the 158 confirmed cases reported from 18-24 April, 58 have tested positive for their serology tests, 60 have tested negative, and 40 serology test results are pending.
Imported cases
The 18 imported cases ad all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst them:
One is a permanent resident who returned from India.
Three are dependant’s pass holders who arrived from India and the Maldives
Three are student's pass holders who arrived from India
One is a work pass holder who arrived from India
Six are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and the Philippines, of whom two are foreign domestic workers.
Four are short-term visit pass holders. Three arrived from Croatia, Germany, Indonesia and Romania for work projects in Singapore, while another arrived from India to visit his family member who is a permanent resident.
A total of 16 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 60,629 or 99.4 per cent of all cases, have fully recovered from the infection and been discharged.
There are currently 88 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. Some 219 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
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