Covid-19: First community case in over 2 weeks dined with 12 family members at Seoul Garden

• The 32-year-old Singaporean man works as a service engineer onboard ships docked at the Marina South Pier and West Coast Pier
• The man had told the authorities that he wore a surgical mask during his work onboard the vessels and at his office
• He had dinner with 12 family members at the Seoul Garden restaurant in Tampines on Nov 21

SINGAPORE — The sole Covid-19 case in the community, the first in more than two weeks, is a 32-year-old Singaporean man who had dinner with 12 family members at the Seoul Garden restaurant in Tampines, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (Nov 26).

They had occupied three tables and there was mingling between the groups during the dinner on Nov 21.

Among those present at the dinner was the man’s two-year-old niece, who had earlier been issued a five-day medical certificate (from Nov 20 to 24) for runny nose. The girl has since tested negative for the coronavirus.

“Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant safe management measures,” MOH said.

In the meantime, all of the man’s identified close contacts — including his family members at the dinner — have been isolated and placed on quarantine.

They will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.

“We will also conduct serological tests on his household and family contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them,” MOH said.

“We urge everyone to continue to exercise social responsibility and to cooperate with the prevailing measures. This is yet another reminder that the virus has not been eradicated and that new cases and clusters can easily emerge in our community, if we let our guard down.”

The man works as a service engineer whose job entails going onboard ships docked at the Marina South Pier and West Coast Pier.

MOH said that his diagnosis is a “fresh infection” as his serological test to detect past infections came back negative.

It added that the man typically works alone and has no interaction with the vessel crew except for a supervising crew member when he services and maintains the ships’ navigational systems.

On days when he was not working onboard the ships, the man had remained at his office located at the Vertex Building Tower B in Ubi.

The man had told the authorities that he wore a surgical mask during his work onboard the vessels and at his office, and that he had adhered to safe distancing and safe management measures.

He developed a fever and sore throat at night on Nov 23 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner the next day. He was then tested for the coronavirus.

The man was taken in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases the next day when his test came back positive.

COVID-19 SITUATION IN SINGAPORE

The man is among five new Covid-19 cases announced by MOH on Thursday. The remaining four cases are imported — they are two dependant’s pass holders, one work permit holder and one work pass holder.

All four have no symptoms.

The two dependant’s pass holders are girls aged five and eight who had arrived from Pakistan, while the other two cases had travel histories to Malaysia and Nepal.

The four were all placed on stay-home notices or isolated upon their arrival in Singapore.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low with a total of one new case reported in the past week, MOH said.

UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 58,195.

Of these, 58,104 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 13 on Thursday.

There are still 43 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving, aside from one who is in intensive care.

Another 20 patients are isolated at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-eight people have died from complications due to the disease.