10 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

SINGAPORE — Singapore reported 10 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday (Jan 23), all of which were imported.

The Ministry of Health said in a press statement that the 10 had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.

"All new cases today are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance," it said, adding that there are no new cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 infection.

This marks the first time in 11 days that Singapore did not record a case in the community or foreign worker dormitories.

The 10 imported cases involved:

• Two Singaporeans — a 38-year-old woman and an eight-year-old boy — who returned from India

• One Work Pass holder who arrived from India

• Five Work Permit holders — all foreign domestic workers — who arrived from Indonesia and Myanmar

• Two Short-Term visit pass holders who arrived from the United States and Ecuador

MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has increased from six cases in the week before to 17 cases in the past week, while the number of unlinked cases in the community has decreased from four to three cases in the same period. 

"We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme," it said.

It also noted that among the 177 confirmed cases reported from Jan 17 to Jan 23, 89 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 30 have tested negative, and 58 serology test results are pending.

UPDATE ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore now stands at 59,260.

In all, 59,015 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 32 on Saturday.

Another 38 confirmed cases are still in hospital.

"Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit," said MOH. 

Another 178 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.

To date, 29 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.