4th Mar 2021
As of 4 March 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there is 1 new case of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The case is in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 18 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 16 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 3 were symptomatic.
Summary of new cases
| | | Breakdown by | | Breakdown by |
| Number of cases | | Already in quarantine/ isolation before detection | Detected from surveillance | | Symptomatic | Asymptomatic |
Cases in the community | 1 | | 1 | 0 | | 1 | 0 |
Cases residing in dormitories | 0 | | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 |
Imported cases | 18 | | 18 | 0 | | 2 | 16 |
Total | 19 | | | | | | |
2. Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 4 cases in the week before to 3 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at 2 cases per week in the past 2 weeks. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.
3. Amongst the 98 confirmed cases reported from 26 February to 4 March, 39 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 30 have tested negative, and 29 serology test results are pending.
Case Details
a) Cases in the community: 1
There is 1 case in the community today who is linked to a previous case.
Case 60626
Case 60626 is an 81 year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of Case 60588[1], and a retiree.
She developed a fever and chills on 27 February but did not seek medical attention, and recovered on the same day. However Case 60626 received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 26 February, and these symptoms might also have been due to the vaccination. As she had been identified as a close contact of Case 60588, she was placed on quarantine on 2 March, and was tested for COVID-19 as part of our protocol to test individuals during quarantine. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, and she was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). Her serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
As the vaccine does not contain live virus, Case 60626 could not have been infected due to vaccination. It is possible for one to be infected just before or just after vaccination as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination.
Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case, including her family members, have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases. We will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the case could have been infected by them.
b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0
There are no cases residing in dormitories today.
c) Imported cases: 18
Amongst the 18 imported cases,
• 3 (Cases 60625, 60628 and 60635) are Singaporeans and 1 (Case 60631) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from Ghana, India, Indonesia and the US.
• 1 (Case 60624) is a Work Pass holder who arrived from Malaysia.
• 11 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, of whom 5 (Cases 60620, 60622, 60636, 60637 and 60641) are foreign domestic workers.
• 1 (Case 60644) is a Student's Pass holder who arrived from the US for studies in Singapore.
• 1 (Case 60633) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Indonesia to visit her Singaporean relative.
They had all already been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN.
4. Please refer to the Annexes and MOH’s daily Situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report) for details.
Update on condition of confirmed cases
5. 8 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 59,857 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
6. There are currently 24 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 88 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19. 29 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
4 MARCH 2021
[1] Case 60588 is an 82 year-old male Singaporean who is a retiree. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 2 March.