7 NEW CASES OF LOCALLY TRANSMITTED COVID-19 INFECTION

      As of 6 October 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified 7 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. Of these, 2 are in the community and 5 reside in dormitories. In addition, there are 4 imported cases, who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival. All cases today are asymptomatic and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance.

Summary of new cases

2.     Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from an average of 1 case per day in the week before, to an average of 2 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has 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.

3.     Of the new cases, 64% are imported or linked to known cases/ clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. 

Case Details

a) Cases in the community: 2 

Both cases in the community had been identified as household contacts of previously confirmed cases, and were placed on quarantine earlier. Cases 57970 and 57971 were placed on quarantine on 3 October, but had not left their home since 28 September. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status, even though they are both asymptomatic. Case 57970 is a student at a private school, and was last in school on 18 September. Case 57971 is a homemaker. 

b) Cases residing in dormitories: 5

Amongst the 5 cases residing in dormitories, 1 had been identified earlier as a contact of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. He was tested during quarantine to determine his status.  

The remaining 4 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.  

c) Imported cases: 4 

There are 4 imported cases today who are asymptomatic. They had all been placed on 14-day SHN upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving SHN at dedicated facilities. 

4.     Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report).

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

Links between previous cases found

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

Update on condition of confirmed cases

7.     15 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 57,612 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities. 

8.     There are currently 43 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 148 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
6 OCTOBER 2020