Sole community case of Covid-19 is a domestic worker: MOH

SINGAPORE — The sole community case of Covid-19 infection in Singapore on Saturday (March 6) is a 35-year-old foreign domestic worker, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

In its evening update on coronavirus infections in the Republic, MOH said the Indonesian national, who is an unlinked case, had arrived here on Jan 20 and served her stay-home notice (SHN) at a dedicated facility until Feb 3. 

Her swab done on Feb 2 during SHN was negative for Covid-19, as was her pre-departure test taken on Jan 18 while she was in Indonesia.

She was asymptomatic, and was detected when she took another Covid-19 pre-departure test on March 4 in preparation for her return to Indonesia. 

Her test result came back positive for Covid-19 infection then, and she was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in an ambulance. 

Another test taken by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) on March 5 came back negative for Covid-19 infection, and a serological test result came back positive, which indicated a likely past infection. 

She is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus ribonucleic acis, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others, MOH said. 

“However as we are unable to definitively confirm her date of infection, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure, including placing all her identified close contacts on quarantine,” it added.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at four cases a week in the past two weeks, the ministry noted. 

The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from two cases in the week before to three cases in the past week. 

IMPORTED CASES

There were also 12 imported cases of the coronavirus confirmed on Saturday, MOH said.

Amongst them:

• One is a Singaporean and one is a permanent resident who returned from Indonesia and Malaysia

• Two are dependant’s pass holders who arrived from India

• One is a work pass holder who arrived from India

• Seven are work permit holders who arrived from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines, of whom three are foreign domestic workers

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

The work pass holder who arrived from India, a 27 year-old woman, has not started work yet, MOH said. 

She arrived in Singapore on Feb 8 and served SHN at a dedicated facility until Feb 22. 

Her test taken during SHN on Feb 21 was negative for Covid-19. As part of her pre-employment health screening, she was tested for Covid-19 on March 4 even though she was asymptomatic, and her test came back positive. 

Another test taken by NPHL on March 5 was negative for Covid-19 infection, and her serological test result came back positive. 

She had also earlier tested positive for a Covid-19 antigen test in India on Nov 18 last year. Given that these indicate likely past infection, MOH has classified the case as imported. 

She is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others, the ministry said.

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 authorities can detect asymptomatic cases. MOH 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

The total number of infections in Singapore is now 60,020.

Nine more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. 

In all, 59,879 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 22 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 

Another 90 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. 

So far, 29 have passed away from complications due to the coronavirus infection.