As of 23 March 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified that there are no new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. There are 13 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore. All new cases today are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance.
Summary of new cases
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| Breakdown by |
| Breakdown by |
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| Number of cases |
| Already in quarantine/ isolation before detection | Detected from surveillance |
| Symptomatic | Asymptomatic |
| Cases in the community | 0 |
| 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 |
| Cases residing in dormitories | 0 |
| 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 |
| Imported cases | 13 |
| 12 | 1 |
| 0 | 13 |
| Total | 13 |
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2. Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 2 cases in the week before to none in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 2 cases in the week before to none 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 93 confirmed cases reported from 17 March to 23 March, 32 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 46 have tested negative, and 15 serology test results are pending.
Case Details
a) Cases in the community: 0
There are no cases in the community today.
b) Cases residing in dormitories: 0
There are no cases residing in dormitories today.
c) Imported cases: 13
Amongst the 13 imported cases,
- 3 (Cases 61116, 61117 and 61118) are Singaporeans and 2 (Cases 61108 and 61115) are Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from Austria, India, Malaysia and the US.
- 1 (Case 61110) is a Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from India.
- 1 (Case 61120) is a Work Pass holder who arrived from the US.
- 5 are Work Permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines, of whom 1 (Case 61125) is a foreign domestic worker.
- 1 (Case 61121) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from the UAE for a work project in Singapore.
They had all already been placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN.
Case 61118 is a 40 year-old female Singaporean who had been residing in Austria since August 2019. She returned to Singapore on 2 March 2021, and served SHN at a dedicated facility until 16 March. Both her on-arrival test on 2 March, as well as her swab done on 15 March during SHN, were negative for COVID-19. She is asymptomatic, and was detected when she took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 20 March in preparation for a trip to Indonesia. Her test result came back positive on 22 March, and she was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. Her Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and her serology test result has also come back positive. Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on her travel history. She is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.
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 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.
6. Low levels of COVID-19 viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) were detected on 21 March from the National Environment Agency’s testing of wastewater sample collected on 20 March from the UTown Residence North Tower at the National University of Singapore. There is evidence to suggest that this may be due to viral shedding from a recovered past infection amongst the residents, but as a precautionary measure, MOH carried out a special testing operations today to test residents of the affected apartments. In total, 437 individuals, excluding the recovered case, have been swabbed for COVID-19 during the testing operations, and all the results are currently pending.
Update on condition of confirmed cases
7. 12 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 60,063 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
8. There are currently 25 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit. 103 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.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
23 MARCH 2021