354 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 8 in community and 5 imported from India

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 354 new cases of Covid-19, including eight that are in the community, five that are imported and 341 who are migrant workers staying in dormitories.

In a press release on Thursday (July 23), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the five imported cases include two permanent residents, two work pass holders and one dependant’s pass holder.

A dependant's pass allows the spouses and children of employment or S-pass holders to live with them in Singapore.

All of the imported cases arrived from India on July 11 and 12, MOH said. They had all tested positive for the coronavirus while serving their 14-day stay-home notices.

For the eight cases in the community, four are Singaporeans and the rest are work permit holders.

Two of the community cases are linked to previous cases or clusters while the remaining six have no links.

MOH said that investigations are ongoing for the cases with no known sources of infection, including one who had visited a polyclinic to “collect her medication for a pre-existing respiratory condition”.

“In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases 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,” it said.

“We will also conduct serological tests for their household contacts to determine if these cases could have been infected by them.”

A serological test is used to check if a person had an infection in the past, or on someone who is asymptomatic or has a very low viral load.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from an average of 12 a day in the week before, to an average of nine a day in the past week.

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

UPDATES ON THE REMAINING CASES

In all, the total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 49,098.

Of these, 45,015 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 220 on Thursday.

There are still 137 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. No one is in critical condition under intensive care.

Another 3,919 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.