532 More Cases Discharged, 117 New Cases of Covid-19 Infection Confirmed

       As of 21 August 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 117 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown of the cases is as follows:

a) Imported cases: 13 (1 Singaporean, 1 Work Pass holder, 4 Work Permit holders, 4 Dependant’s Pass holders, 1 Long-Term Visit Pass holder, 2 Short-Term Visit Pass holders)

Amongst the 13 imported cases, 1 (Case 56203) is a Singaporean who returned to Singapore from India on 7 August. Another 5 (Cases 56201, 56202, 56217, 56223 and 56270) are Work Pass/ Work Permit holders currently employed in Singapore, who arrived from the Philippines between 7 August and 9 August, and the UK on 10 August. An additional 5 cases (Cases 56205, 56220, 56271, 56275 and 56276) are Dependant’s Pass or Long-Term Visit Pass holders who arrived from India on 10 August and the UK between 8 August and 10 August. The remaining cases (Cases 56242 and 56243) are Short-Term Visit Pass holders who arrived from India on 7 August and the Philippines on 9 August. They were allowed entry into Singapore because 1 is a spouse and caregiver of a patient who has been receiving medical treatment in Singapore and another is employed on a project basis to work in Singapore. 

All the cases 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: 6 (3 Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents, 3 Work Permit holders)

Of the 6 cases in the community, 4 were picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 1 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. 4 of them are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.

There is 1 case in the community today (Case 56244) who had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case. He had been placed on quarantine earlier, and was tested during quarantine to determine his status. 

5 of the community cases are currently unlinked. Of these, 3 cases (Cases 56187, 56190 and 56269) were identified as a result of our Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories. Another case (Case 56200) was tested as part of our efforts to screen individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations. The remaining case (Case 56184) 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 these cases could have been infected by them. 

Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, we also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections.  The serological test results for Cases 56200 and 56244 have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections. The test results for the remaining cases are pending. 

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: 98

The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories. There are currently about 14,300 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period. These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends, and we expect the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering down thereafter.

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, 93% 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 and Annex C for details. 

Update on condition of confirmed cases

5.     532 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 53,651 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

6.     There are currently 72 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 2,466 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
21 AUGUST 2020