Sole community case confirmed to have Covid-19 two days after getting first jab, tests preliminarily positive for contagious B117 strain

SINGAPORE — The sole community Covid-19 case registered in Singapore on Sunday (April 18) was confirmed to have the disease just two days after receiving his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

The victim, a 39-year-old Indonesian man, has tested "preliminarily positive" for the B117 strain — a variant of the coronavirus that spreads faster than other versions but recent studies had found to be not as deadly.

"As the vaccine does not contain live virus, he could not have been infected due to vaccination," MOH said. "It is possible for one to be infected just before or just after vaccination as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination."

MOH said the man, a sea crew on board a bunker tanker, has no links to previous cases. He had not disembarked from the vessel except to go for Covid-19 testing and vaccination.

The man had no symptoms and was detected when he was tested on April 15 as part of routine tests.

His pooled test result came back positive for Covid-19 the next day, and he was taken in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

An individual test done on April 16 also came back positive the following day.

The man had received his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on April 15, MOH said.

All his close contacts, including crew members of the vessel, have been quarantined.

There were 22 other cases registered on Sunday, all of whom were imported and had already been isolated or placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

Among the 22:

• Five are Singapore permanent residents who returned from India

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

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

• Five are work pass holders who arrived from India and Kazakhstan

• Five are work permit holders who came from Bangladesh and India

• Four are short-term visit pass holders. Two of them are sea crew who arrived from the Philippines and Myanmar, while another two came from Indonesia and Romania for work assignments

Overall, the number of new community cases has jumped from two in the week before to eight in the past week, MOH said.

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

The total number of infections in Singapore is now 60,831.

Of these, 60,485 have fully recovered, including the 22 discharged on Sunday.

There are currently 68 patients who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and two are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 248 with mild symptoms, or who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19, are isolated at community facilities.

Thirty people have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.