22 MORE CASES DISCHARGED, 23 NEW CASES OF COVID-19 INFECTION CONFIRMED

1.      As of 30 September 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 23 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

Summary of new cases

Amongst the new cases today, 21 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 2 were symptomatic.

a)      Imported cases: 4 (1 Singaporean, 1 Permanent Resident, 2 Work Permit holders)

Amongst the 4 imported cases, 1 (Case 57897) is a Singaporean and another (Case 57890) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned to Singapore from India on 12 September and Indonesia on 25 September. The remaining 2 (Cases 57907 and 57908) are Work Permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines on 18 September. All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving their SHN at dedicated facilities.

b)      Cases in the community: 3 (3 Work Permit holders)

Of the 3 cases in the community, 2 were picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 1 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. 2 of the cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

1 of the community cases today is linked to previous cases. Case 57911 had been identified as a contact of previously confirmed cases, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. He was tested during quarantine to determine his status, even though he is asymptomatic.

The other 2 community cases are currently unlinked. Case 57889 was detected as a result of our Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories, even though he is asymptomatic. Case 57906 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 unlinked cases are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases 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 their household contacts to determine if they could have been infected by them

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of fewer than 1 case per day in the past 2 weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of fewer than 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: 16

Amongst the 16 cases residing in dormitories, 10 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 6 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as our bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories. 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.

2.      Details of these trends can be found in MOH's daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report). Please refer to Annex A for the summary of the confirmed cases.

3.      Of the new cases, 87% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

4.      MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission. As there have been no more cases linked to Cochrane Lodge II (49 Admiralty Road West) for the past two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days), the cluster has now been closed.

Links between previous cases found

5.      Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. Please refer to Annex B and Annex C for details.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

6.      22 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 57,488 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.      There are currently 41 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 209 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.