19 new Covid-19 cases, including 4 crew members of a ship that arrived from Malaysia

SINGAPORE — Four special pass holders who are crew members of a ship that arrived from Malaysia on Sept 23 have tested positive for Covid-19.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its evening update on the coronavirus situation on Thursday (Oct 1) that they had not disembarked from their ship and later reported symptoms.

They were then swabbed for the virus while on the ship, where they had remained until their test results were known. They were then taken to the hospital.

The four Filipino men, aged 23 to 59, were among the 15 imported cases reported on Thursday. 

There is one case in the community and three linked to migrant workers staying in dormitories, making it 19 in all for new cases for the day.

The one community case is a 54-year-old permanent resident who is linked to two previous infections. She had already been placed on quarantine earlier.

MOH said that two community cases announced in the afternoon have been removed following an investigation.

The initial test results for the two cases had been “borderline-positive” and further tests later confirmed that the two do not have Covid-19.

MOH stressed: “All necessary public health actions had been taken earlier and neither the cases nor their contacts had been exposed to risk of infection due to the initial classification.”

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of fewer than one case a day in the past 14 days.

The number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has also remained stable at an average of fewer than one a day in the two past weeks.

Among the imported cases that excluded the seafarers, there were three Singaporeans, two permanent residents, two work pass holders, one work permit holder, two student’s pass holders and one short-term visit pass holder.

They had arrived from India, Indonesia, France and the Philippines between Sept 17 and 28.

They were then placed on 14-day stay-home notices and tested positive while serving their notices at dedicated facilities.

Of the three new cases involving migrant workers in dormitories, one had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases.

The remaining two were detected through surveillance testing, such as Rostered Routine Testing under MOH and the testing of those with acute respiratory infection symptoms.

Based on MOH's monitoring of existing clusters for any further transmission of the coronavirus, there have been no more cases linked to a cluster at 8 Sungei Kadut Loop.

The cluster is now closed.

UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 57,784.

Of these, 57,512 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 24 on Thursday.

There are still 44 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. No one is in intensive care.

Another 201 patients are isolated and being cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-seven people have died from complications due to Covid-19.