155 more cases discharged, 60 new cases of Covid-19 infection confirmed

     As of 26 August 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 60 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

a) Imported cases: 10 (5 Singaporeans/Permanent Residents, 2 Work Pass holders, 2 Dependant’s Pass holders, 1 Long-Term Visit pass holder)

Amongst the 10 imported cases, 5 (Cases 56554, 56555, 56569, 56570 and 56571) are Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from India on 14 August. Another 2 (Cases 56558 and 56559) are Work Pass holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from India and the Philippines on 14 August. The remaining 3 (Cases 56523, 56524 and 56560) are Dependant’s Pass and Long-Term Pass holders who arrived from India and the US on 12 August and 14 August.

All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities. They had been tested while serving their SHN.

b) Cases in the community: 3 (1 Singaporean, 2 Work Permit holders)

Of the 3 cases in the community, 2 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. 2 of the cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

2 of the community cases today are linked to previous cases. Both (Cases 56540 and 56542) had been identified as contacts of a previously confirmed case, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. Case 56522 was detected under our enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor. This allows us to identify infected individuals early and to quickly contain further spread.

Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case 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 his household contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of 2 cases per day in the past 2 weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of 1 case per day in the past 2 weeks. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

c) Cases residing in dormitories: 47

Amongst the 47 cases residing in dormitories, 29 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

The remaining 18 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as our bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories and testing of those with ARI symptoms. This allows us to pick up cases early, including asymptomatic ones, so that we are able to ring-fence them quickly to prevent further transmission, by aggressively containing, tracing and isolating the close contacts.

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we have also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections ^[1]. The serological test results for 7 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections.

2.      Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report. Please refer to Annex A [PDF, 32.8 KB] for the summary of the confirmed cases.

3.      Of the new cases, 97% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Links between previous cases found

4.      Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. Please refer to Annex B [PDF, 28.5 KB] and Annex C [PDF, 127 KB] for details.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

5.      155 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 54,971 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

6.      There are currently 65 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 1,432 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. 27 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
26 AUGUST 2020

^[1] Cases whose serological tests are positive are likely to have a past infection, and could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA picked by the PCR test, which were no longer transmissible and infective to others.