Covid-19: 4 new patients diagnosed, 3 linked to Grace Assembly of God church

SINGAPORE — Four new patients have been diagnosed as having the Covid-19 infection here while five have recovered, including a one-year-old boy who was diagnosed two days ago, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Tuesday (Feb 18).

To date, Singapore has seen 81 cases of the coronavirus infection but of these, 29 have fully recovered and have left hospital. There are still four patients in critical condition and under intensive care, but the number has come down compared with the peak of eight last week.

Among the four new patients announced on Tuesday, three of them — Cases 78, 80 and 81 — were linked to the Grace Assembly of God church, where 18 have already been infected.

The fourth one is linked to a 40-year-old male Chinese national who is a work pass holder here (Case 72), who was in turn linked to a 61-year-old Singaporean man (Case 59) who works at a private hospital here.

All the four newly diagnosed patients did not go to China recently.

NEW CONFIRMED CASES

Case 78

Case 78 is a 57-year-old female Singaporean who tested positive for Covid-19 on Feb 17 afternoon and is warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Before she was warded, she went to work at a community hospital run by a voluntary welfare organisation. She handled administrative work and has not interacted with patients since she developed symptoms. She lives in the Dairy Farm area.

Case 79

• Case 79 is a 35-year-old Malaysian woman who is a work pass holder here. She was diagnosed on Monday afternoon and is warded in an isolation room at NCID.

• Before she was placed under quarantine, she had gone to work at FoodXchange @ Admiralty. She lives in the Woodlands Crescent area and is a family member of Case 72.

Case 80

• Case 80 is a 38-year-old female Singaporean woman who tested positive on Monday morning. She is warded in an isolation room at the National University Hospital (NUH) and is linked to Case 66. She does administrative work at NUH and has not interacted with patients since the onset of symptoms.

Case 81

• Case 81 is a 50-year-old Singaporean man who tested positive on Monday morning, and is warded in an isolation room at the NCID.

As of noon on Feb 18, MOH has identified 2,486 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 1,160 are still under quarantine while 1,326 have completed their quarantine.

Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing. Once identified, MOH will closely monitor all close contacts.

LINKS BETWEEN PREVIOUS CASES

Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. This was made possible with the assistance of the Singapore Police Force.

• 21 of the confirmed cases (Cases 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 80 and 81) are linked to the Grace Assembly of God.

• Five of the confirmed cases (Cases 42, 47, 52, 56 and 69) are linked to the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.

• Three of the confirmed cases (Cases 30, 36 and 39) are linked to the private business meeting held at Grand Hyatt Singapore from Jan 20 to 22.

• Nine of the confirmed cases (Cases 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 34 and 40) are linked to Yong Thai Hang (24 Cavan Road off Lavender Street).

• Cases 8 and 9, as well as Cases 31, 33 and 38, are linked to The Life Church and Missions Singapore (146B Paya Lebar Road).

Investigations on these clusters are ongoing, MOH said. In addition to the clusters, investigations have identified the following links between cases:

• Case 44, a 37-year-old Singaporean man who works at Certis Cisco Centre and had served Quarantine Orders on two people from Wuhan, was linked to Cases 13 and 26, a mother-and-daughter pair from Wuhan;

• Case 72, a 40 year-old male Chinese national who is a Singapore work pass holder and has no recent travel history to China, is a non-medical contact of Case 59, a 61-year-old Singaporean man who works at a private hospital here;

• Case 75, a 71-year-old Singaporean woman, is a family member of Case 41, a 71-year-old Singaporean man who visited Paya Lebar Methodist Church and a gathering at Braddell Heights Residents’ Committee; 

• Case 77 is linked to Case 50, and Case 50 is linked to Case 65 and Case 55, a 30-year-old Singaporean man who works at Pulau Bukom and went to the Catholic Church of Christ the King

Contact tracing is underway for the other seven locally transmitted cases to establish any links to previous cases or travel history to mainland China.