1. As of 20 January 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are 4 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 36 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. Amongst the new cases today, 36 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 4 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 | 4 | | 1 | 3 | | 3 | 1 |
| Cases residing in dormitories | 0 | | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 |
| Imported cases | 36 | | 36 | 0 | | 1 | 35 |
| Total | 40 | | | | | | |
2. Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 4 cases in the week before to 18 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 2 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 213 confirmed cases reported from 14 January to 20 January, 118 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 36 have tested negative, and 59 serology test results are pending.
Case Details
a) Cases in the community: 4
There are 4 cases in the community today, of whom 1 is currently unlinked and 3 are linked to previous cases.
Case 59455
Case 59455 is a 27 year-old male Malaysian national who is a Work Pass holder. He works as a sales personnel at BS Industrial & Construction Supply Pte Ltd (34 Kallang Place). He is a co-worker of Case 59429 [1].
He developed a sore throat on 14 January, and loss of smell and taste on 18 January but did not seek medical treatment and continued to go to work.
As he had been identified as a close contact of Case 59429, he was contacted by MOH on 18 January and conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital when he reported these symptoms. He was tested at the hospital, and his test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day. His serology test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Case 59456
Case 59456 is a 29 year-old female Malaysian national who is a Work Pass holder, and works at BS Industrial & Construction Supply Pte Ltd as a sales personnel. She is a co-worker of Case 59429.
She developed a sore throat and difficulty in breathing on 16 January but did not seek medical treatment and continued to go to work and interact in the community.
On 18 January, as she had been identified as a close contact of Case 59429, she was contacted by MOH. She was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and tested for COVID-19 when she reported these symptoms. Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 the next day. Her serology test result has also come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
We strongly urge everyone to do their part to reduce the risk of transmission. Those who are unwell, including those showing early/mild symptoms, should be socially responsible and seek medical attention immediately and stay at home to prevent the spread of illness to others.
Case 59474
Case 59474 is a 28 year-old female Malaysian national who is a Work Pass holder. She works as a finance personnel at BS Industrial & Construction Supply Pte Ltd.
She developed a cough on 19 January. On the same day, she was placed on quarantine as a close contact of Case 59429, and was conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital when she reported her symptom. She subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 infection, and was warded at NCID on the same day. Her serology test result has also come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.
Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant prevailing safe management measures at their workplace. The government takes a serious view of any breach and will take actions should there be non-compliance.
Case 59473
Case 59473 is a 46 year-old male Indian national who is a Work Pass holder, and works as a software engineer at APAR Technologies Pte Ltd (4 Shenton Way).
He had travelled to India between 9 March and 29 October 2020, and the UAE between 29 October and 13 November. He served SHN at a dedicated facility upon his return to Singapore until 27 November, and his swab done on 23 November during SHN was negative for COVID- 19.
He is asymptomatic, and was detected when he took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 19 January in preparation for a trip back to India. His result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day and he was conveyed to NCID. His Ct value is very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result has come back positive. These indicate a likely past infection.
Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases, including their family and household members, as well as co-workers, 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: 36
Amongst the 36 imported cases,
- 1 (Case 59459) is a Singaporean and 1 (Case 59458) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from Canada and India respectively.
- 1 (Case 59469) is a Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from India.
- 1 (Case 59439) is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from India.
- 4 (Cases 59434, 59443, 59466 and 59467) are Student’s Pass holders who arrived from India, Indonesia, the UAE and Slovak Republic.
- 4 (Cases 59436, 59437, 59438 and 59463) are Work Pass holders who arrived from India and Ireland.
- 20 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Myanmar, of whom 7 (Cases 59447, 59451, 59452, 59453, 59454, 59462 and 59464) are foreign domestic workers.
- 4 (Cases 59446, 59470, 59471 and 59472) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders. Cases 59471 and 59472 arrived from India to visit their Singaporean relatives, and Cases 59446 and 59470 arrived from Myanmar and the US for work assignments in Singapore.
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. 32 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,926 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
6. There are currently 45 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 197 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.
[1] Case 59429 is a 39 year-old male Singapore Permanent Resident who works as a sales personnel at BS Industrial & Construction Supply Pte Ltd. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 18 January.