New Covid-19 cluster in Singapore as 4 men who’re citizens or travellers from Papua New Guinea infected

SINGAPORE — The sole Covid-19 community case reported in Singapore on Wednesday (April 14) was a 44-year-old man from Papua New Guinea who came here for a work project. He had arrived from Australia on March 25.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the man had been identified as a close contact of two previously confirmed cases who came from Papua New Guinea on a controlled itinerary for work.

He and three other men now form a new cluster.

MOH had said before that the previously announced two cases were linked to another case — a 50-year-old Colombian man who had arrived from Papua New Guinea for a work project here.

The latest case, the 44-year-old man, was placed on quarantine at a dedicated facility on April 1.

Before this, the man’s pre-departure tests done in Australia on March 23 was negative for the coronavirus, as did his on-arrival test taken in Singapore on March 25.

He was isolated until another Covid-19 test taken on March 27 came back negative.

“Subsequently, he was on a controlled itinerary, which was largely limited to his place of work and accommodation. Another test done on March 31 also came back negative for Covid-19,” MOH said.

The man’s swab test taken on April 2 during his latest quarantine was negative.

However, another test taken on April 12 came back positive on Tuesday even though the man did not show any symptoms.

He was then taken to the hospital.

“His serology test result (for past infection) is pending. We have classified this case as locally transmitted as he had repeatedly tested negative for Covid-19 before April 12.

“He was likely to have been infected through his exposure to (the two other cases) during the course of their work,” MOH said.

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

The number of cases in the community with no known links to other confirmed cases has gone down from two in the week before to one in the past week.

IMPORTED CASES

There were 26 imported cases reported on Wednesday, and all of them had been placed on stay-home notices upon their arrival here.

They were:

• One Singaporean and four permanent residents who returned from India and the Philippines

• One dependant’s pass holder who arrived from Sri Lanka

• Two work pass holders who came from India and Nepal

• Seventeen work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India and Indonesia — four of whom are foreign domestic workers

• One short-term visit pass holder who is a seafarer. The man had arrived from the Philippines to board a vessel in Singapore and had remained onboard until he developed symptoms and was taken to a hospital

UPDATE ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore is now 60,719.

Of these, 60,392 people have fully recovered and been discharged, including 18 on Wednesday.

There are still 61 patients in hospitals. Of these, most are stable or improving, and two are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, MOH said.

This is the first time since July last year that there are two patients in critical care.

Another 236 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Thirty people have died from complications due to the disease.