Covid-19: 10 cases in community among 188 new infections, 2 new clusters identified

SINGAPORE — There are 10 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, seven of them Singaporeans, one a permanent resident and two who are work permit holders.

They were part of the 188 new cases that were announced on Thursday (July 2) by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

One imported case, a 36-year-old Filipina who had travelled to the United Kingdom and arrived here on June 20, was also among the confirmed figures.

The remaining 177 cases were linked to migrant workers living in dormitories. Two new clusters of infections were also confirmed at dormitories located at 7 Gambas Crescent and 17 Tuas View Close.

MOH said that the woman from the Philippines is a work pass holder who is working in Singapore. She was placed on stay-home notice upon her arrival and was taken to a facility to begin her 14-day isolation.

“She is asymptomatic and had been tested while serving the stay-home notice,” MOH said.

Of the 10 cases in the community, the ministry said that three cases had been picked up as a result of its proactive surveillance and screening while five others had already been placed on quarantine earlier.

For the Singaporeans and permanent resident, three of them had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases and had already been quarantined earlier.

Another three were detected even though they were asymptomatic due to the ministry's proactive surveillance of those working at the dormitories or who have been deployed to frontline Covid-19 operations.

“Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the remaining two cases who had been swabbed under our enhanced community testing after being diagnosed with acute respiratory infection,” MOH said.

As for the two work permit holders, they had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases and had already been quarantined earlier.

The ministry said that besides the polymerase chain reaction test, it had also conducted serological tests to determine if some of these community cases are current or past infections.

“The serological test results for two cases have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections,” MOH said. The two, a 31-year-old Singaporean man and 55-year-old Singaporean woman, were linked to separate dormitory clusters.

The serological test results for the remaining community cases are pending.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone up — from an average of four a day in the week before to an average of nine a day in the past week.

The number of cases in the community with no known links to past cases has also increased from an average of two a day in the week before to an average of four a day in the past week.

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

UPDATE ON THE REMAINING CASES

There are now 44,310 cases of Covid-19 recorded in Singapore. Of these, 39,429 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 418 on Thursday.

There are still 201 patients in hospitals. Most of them are in stable condition or improving, and one patient is in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH added that 4,654 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-six people have died from complications due to Covid-19.