Five new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

[SINGAPORE] There were five new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Sunday noon, taking Singapore's total to 58,524.

All were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

No community cases or patients from within workers' dormitories were reported.

More details will be announced on Sunday night.

On Saturday, 10 new coronavirus cases were confirmed, including a Lebanese national found to be infected with Covid-19 after he had completed part of his stay-home notice (SHN) at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel.

MOH said on Saturday night that he was transferred to another dedicated facility last Sunday, when the ministry began investigations into 13 Covid-19 cases who had served their SHN at the hotel.

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The 13 cases, which came from 10 different countries, were infected by coronavirus strains with "high genetic similarity", which implied that the infections might have come from one source and could have happened in the hotel.

The 37-year-old Lebanese man likely picked up Covid-19 after arrival in Singapore from Qatar, according to facts laid out by MOH.

The short-term visit pass holder was swabbed for Covid-19 on Dec 19 and 21 and his test results were negative. His swab on Dec 24, at the end of his SHN, came back positive, while his serological test result was negative. The latter test determines if his infection was an old one.

"Investigations are ongoing to assess if he could be linked to the 13 cases," said MOH.

All 10 cases announced by MOH on Saturday were imported and all of them had been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. They were all asymptomatic.

Two of Saturday's new cases are Singaporeans who had returned from Britain.

Five are Indian nationals who had arrived from their home country. The remaining two cases are a Bangladeshi and a Malaysian, who had arrived from Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively.

MOH said the Malaysian is a caregiver to an individual who was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment.

It added that epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, close contacts of the cases have been isolated, placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.

MOH will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the cases could have been infected by them.

With 37 cases discharged on Saturday, 58,347 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 37 patients remained in hospital on Saturday, with none in intensive care, while 91 were recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 80.3 million people. More than 1.75 million people have died.

THE STRAITS TIMES