Covid-19: 34 new imported cases; 2 test ‘preliminarily positive’ for more contagious British strain

SINGAPORE — Two of the 34 new imported cases of Covid-19 in Singapore on Thursday (Jan 28) have tested “preliminarily positive” for the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

In its update on the Covid-19 situation here, it said that one of the two men tested positive for the coronavirus after he had served his quarantine at a dedicated facility.

The 33-year-old Indian national works as a software engineer at Pacific International Lines.

He arrived from India on Dec 27 and served his stay-home notice until Jan 10. His swab test conducted during quarantine on Jan 7 was negative for Covid-19.

He then worked from home from Jan 11 to 21.

The man, however, developed nausea on Jan 25 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner the next day.

He was tested for the virus because he also reported having a sore throat and an intermittent cough. His test result then came back positive on Wednesday.

MOH said that the man’s serological test result has come back positive, indicating a likely past infection.

The other imported case who tested preliminarily positive for the British B117 strain is a 31-year-old work permit holder from Bangladesh who had not started work here since his arrival in Singapore on Jan 6.

He had served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility and his swab test on Jan 17 tested negative for the virus.

The next day though, the man was placed on quarantine and isolation after he had been identified as a flight contact of a previous case.

He was then tested again on Jan 26 even though he had no known symptoms and his result came back positive.

“His serology test result has come back negative, and he has also tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain, and is pending further confirmatory tests,” MOH said.

The ministry added that the two cases have been classified as imported cases given their recent travel history.

Besides them, the other 32 imported cases are:

• Three Singaporean men aged 45, 53 and 57, and five permanent residents who returned from Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States 

• Two dependant’s pass holders who arrived from Bangladesh and the UAE

• One long-term visit pass holder who came from India

• Three work pass holders who arrived from India, Pakistan and Romania

• Fifteen work permit holders who came from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Malaysia — nine of whom are foreign domestic workers

• Three short-term visit pass holders. Two of them had arrived from Indonesia and the US for work projects here and the third case arrived from Indonesian to visit her Singaporean child

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from 21 in the week before to one in the past week.

The number of cases with no known links in the community has also gone down from six in the week before to none in the past week.

UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore is now 59,425.

Of these, 59,148 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 44 on Thursday.

There are still 40 patients in hospitals. “Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit,” MOH said.

Another 208 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-nine people have died from complications due to the disease.