40 new Covid-19 infections in Singapore, including 7 imported cases and 1 in the community

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 40 new cases of Covid-19, including seven that are imported and one that is in the community. The remaining 32 are migrant workers staying in dormitories.

In a press release on Tuesday (Sept 1), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the seven imported cases comprise one Singaporean, two permanent residents, two work pass holders, one dependant’s pass holder and one short-term visit pass holder.

The short-term visit pass holder is a one-year-old girl, MOH said.

The seven travellers had come from Bangladesh, Brazil, India and the United States between Aug 16 and 18.

They had been placed on a 14-day stay-home notice and tested positive while serving their notices at dedicated facilities.

The sole case in the community is a 24-year-old work pass holder from China who has no known source of infection. The woman had been detected as a result of the MOH’s Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside dormitories.

Investigations are ongoing for the case.

“In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case 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.

“We will also conduct serological tests for her household contacts to determine if she could have been infected by them,” MOH said.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone up, from an average of two cases a day in the week before to an average of three in the past two weeks.

The number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has remained stable at an average of one a day in the past 14 days.

Of the 32 new cases involving migrant workers staying in dormitories, 22 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases.

The remaining 10 were detected through surveillance testing, such as the Rostered Routine Testing and the testing of those with acute respiratory infection symptoms.

“The serological test results for nine cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections,” the ministry said.

UPDATES ON REMAINING CASES

The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 56,852.

Of these, 55,749 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 91 on Tuesday.

There are still 86 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. No one is in intensive care.

Another 990 patients are isolated and being cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-seven people have died from complications due to Covid-19.