Berries World tuition teacher among two new Covid-19 community cases in Singapore

[SINGAPORE] A 27-year-old woman who works as a teacher at the Yishun branch of Berries World of Learning School, a Chinese-language enrichment centre, has tested positive for Covid-19.

The Singapore permanent resident developed a runny nose on Tuesday after work and went to a GP the next day, where she was tested for the coronavirus, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

As a precautionary measure, the centre where she works will be closed until Sunday for cleaning and disinfection.

Her test came back positive on Thursday and she was taken to Singapore General Hospital.

She was one of two community cases confirmed by MOH on Thursday, the other being a 33-year-old Malaysian man who works at PSA Corporation in the West Coast port area.

He was asymptomatic and was tested last Sunday as part of rostered routine testing, and was confirmed to have the infection on Wednesday.

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He had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, with his second dose taken on Feb 14.

"As it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination, he was likely to have been infected before he was conferred protection after vaccination," said MOH.

There were also eight imported cases confirmed on Thursday for a total of 10 cases, bringing Singapore's total case count up to 59,900.

The eight imported cases comprised individuals arriving from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The number of new cases in the community has increased from three cases two weeks ago to four in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has increased from one case to two cases over the same period.

With 24 cases discharged on Thursday, 59,770 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 16 patients remain in hospital, including one in the intensive care unit, while 70 are recuperating in community facilities.

THE STRAITS TIMES