3 NEW CASES OF LOCALLY TRANSMITTED COVID-19 INFECTION

1.      As of 28 April 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 3 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. The cases are in the community, and there are no new cases in the dormitories. There are 20 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 16 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 7 were symptomatic.

Summary of new cases

2.      Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 9 cases in the week before to 13 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 5 cases in the week before to 6 cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

3.      Amongst the 206 confirmed cases reported from 22 April to 28 April, 90 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 85 have tested negative, and 31 serology test results are pending.

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 3

There are 3 cases in the community today who are currently unlinked.

Case 62517

Case 62517 is a 38 year-old male Singaporean who works as an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) Officer deployed at Changi Airport Terminal 1, but had not gone to work after onset of symptoms.

He developed a cough on 23 April and sought medical treatment the next day at a General Practitioner clinic, where he was given 2 days’ medical leave. On 26 April, he developed a fever, anosmia and body aches, and sought medical treatment at Tan Tock Seng Hospital the next day. He was tested for COVID-19 and his test came back positive on the same day. His previous tests from RRT – the last being on 22 April – were all negative for COVID-19 infection. His serology test result is pending.

Case 62526

Case 62526 is a 58 year-old male Singaporean who works as a construction project manager in Nepal, and had been in there from 13 February to 13 December 2020.

Upon his return to Singapore, he served SHN at a dedicated facility until 27 December. His test taken on 23 December during SHN was negative for COVID-19. He is asymptomatic, and was detected when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 26 April in preparation for his trip back to Nepal. His test result came back positive the next day, and he was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in an ambulance. His serology test result is pending.

His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load. He could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection which are no longer transmissible and infective to others, but given that we are not able to definitively conclude when he had been infected, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure.

Case 62541

Case 62541 is a 46 year-old female Philippines national who is a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), and is deployed at Ward 9D, a general ward.

She developed a cough, sore throat and body aches on 27 April, and sought medical treatment at TTSH. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on the same day, and she was warded at NCID. Her serology test result is pending.

Case 62541 received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 26 January, and the second dose on 18 February. The COVID-19 vaccine is effective in preventing symptomatic disease for the vast majority of those vaccinated, but it is possible for vaccinated individuals to get infected.

Following the detection of Case 62541, TTSH has locked down the affected ward, and tested the patients and staff who had been in the ward. So far, we have detected 4 more cases who have tested preliminarily positive for COVID-19 infection. These include a doctor, and 3 patients who are being cared for in the same ward. As a precautionary measure, all staff who treated the infected patients, as well as all visitors, patients and staff working in Ward 9D will be placed on quarantine. Epidemiological investigations and contact tracing are ongoing. As we are conducting further testing for these 4 cases, they have not been included in today’s case count.

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0

There are no cases residing in dormitories today. 

c) Imported cases: 20

Amongst the 20 imported cases, 

• 2 (Cases 62514 and 62532) are Singaporeans and 1 (Case 62545) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from India and the UAE.
• 1 (Case 62539) is a Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from Nepal.
• 5 (Cases 62515, 62525, 62527, 62544 and 62551) are Work Pass holders who arrived from India, Japan, the Maldives, Nepal and Uzbekistan.
• 6 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines, of whom 2 (Cases 62516 and 62529) are foreign domestic workers.
• 4 (Cases 62520, 62521, 62524 and 62528) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders. Cases 62520, 62521 and 62524 arrived from India to visit their family members who are Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents. Case 62528 arrived from the Philippines for a work project in Singapore.
• 1 (Case 62523) is a Special Pass holder who is a sea crew. He arrived from Indonesia on a vessel, and was tested onboard without disembarking.

They had all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or during isolation.

4.      Please refer to the Annexes and MOH’s daily Situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report) for details.

5.      Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. 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 the close contacts to determine if the cases could have been infected by them.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

6.      14 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 60,718 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

7.      There are currently 112 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 226 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. 30 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.