226 new Covid-19 infections in Singapore, including a community case who is a Changi Prison inmate

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 226 new cases of Covid-19, including nine that are imported and one that is in the community. The remaining 216 are migrant workers staying in dormitories.

In a press release on Monday (Aug 3), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the nine imported cases include a permanent resident, three work pass holders, two work permit holders and three dependant’s pass holders.

Dependant’s passes allow the spouses and children of employment or S-pass holders to live with them in Singapore.

The imported cases arrived from countries such as India, Japan and the Philippines between July 20 and 22.

They had been placed on a 14-day stay-home notice at dedicated facilities and tested positive for Covid-19 while serving their notices, MOH said.

One community case is a prison inmate who was a short-term visit pass holder and who had arrived in Singapore before the implementation of border measures.

The 26-year-old man had served an earlier sentence in prison before this admission and he has no known links to past cases or clusters.

As part of the Singapore Prison Service’s proactive screening of inmates, he had tested negative for Covid-19 for his entry and exit swabs on July 2 and July 22 respectively.

“He was subsequently tested again for Covid-19 and his test came back positive,” MOH said.

Investigations are ongoing for this case since it has no known sources of infection.

“In the meantime, all the identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases,” MOH said.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from an average of five a day in the week before, to an average of two a day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone down from an average of three a day in the week before, to an average of one a day in the past week.

TWO CLUSTERS CLOSED

For existing clusters, MOH said that it has been monitoring them for any further transmission.

“As there have been no more cases linked to Keppel Shipyard (51 Pioneer Sector 1) and Paya Lebar Quarter Tower 2 (1 Paya Lebar Link) for the past two incubation periods, the clusters have now been closed,” it said.

For the second day in a row, there were no additions on Monday to a list of public places that had been visited by Covid-19 cases during their infectious period.

UPDATES ON THE REMAINING CASES

In all, the total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 53,051.

Of these, 47,179 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 253 on Monday.

There are still 115 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. One person is in critical condition under intensive care.

Another 5,730 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

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