Covid-19: 4 of 10 community cases test preliminarily positive with B1617 variant from India

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Sunday (May 9) recorded 10 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19, of which four tested preliminarily positive with the B1617 variant that originated in India.

They were among 28 new cases of Covid-19 reported on Sunday.

The other 18 cases were imported and had already been isolated upon arrival in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

Of the four who tested preliminarily positive with the B1617 variant, two of them had no known links with previous cases.

They are:

• A 38-year-old Singaporean man who works as a private-hire car driver with Grab. He stays with his girlfriend, a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Vietnam on April 12 and had tested negative

• A 40-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a risk assessment personnel at Lendlease Pte Ltd

Apart from these two, another unlinked case is a 47-year-old Singaporean man who works as a landscaper at NParks.

Another two who tested preliminarily positive with the B1617 variant belongs to the cluster where the first detected case was an 88-year-old cleaner deployed at Changi Airport Terminal 3.

They are:

• A 51-year-old female work permit holder deployed at T3 by the same cleaning company, Ramky Cleantech Services

• A 57-year-old Singaporean man who is employed by Certis Cisco as an auxiliary police officer at T3

There were another two cases from the same cluster:

• A 63-year-old Singaporean man who is employed by Ramky Cleantech Services as a trolley handler and cleaner at T3

• A 66-year-old Singaporean man who works as a SATS passenger escort at T3

Another three cases are from the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) cluster. They had been warded in Ward 9D, where the first detected case, a 46-year-old nurse, had been deployed.

The other 18 cases were imported:

• One is a Singaporean and 10 are permanent residents who returned from India, Indonesia and Yemen

• One is a work pass holder who arrived from Malaysia

• Four are Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia, all of whom are foreign domestic workers

• One is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Indonesia

• One is a special pass holder, a sea crew who arrived from Malaysia on a vessel

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 50 cases in the week before to 39 in the past week, MOH said.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 10 cases in the week before to 13 in the past week.

Sunday's tally brings the coronavirus total in Singapore to 61,359.

Of these, 60,933 have fully recovered from the infection, including the 21 discharged on Sunday.

There are 133 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 262 with mild symptoms, or who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19, are isolated at community facilities.

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