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Over 2,000 people quarantined as part of wide net cast to contain KTV Covid-19 cluster: Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE — The Government has quarantined 2,480 individuals who could potentially be part of a fast-growing Covid-19 cluster involving several karaoke lounges.

The 2,480 people under quarantine are staff members of the KTV lounges, as well as some patrons of the lounges detected through contact tracing applications, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on July 16, 2021.

The 2,480 people under quarantine are staff members of the KTV lounges, as well as some patrons of the lounges detected through contact tracing applications, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on July 16, 2021.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report stated that 202,480 individuals have been quarantined. This is incorrect. The figure should be 2,480. We are sorry for the error.

  • Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that 2,480 people could potentially be part of the Covid-19 cluster linked to karaoke lounges
  • Since the Government announced the cluster on July 12, 1,660 people have come forward to get tested and 25 have tested positive
  • The challenge of this cluster is that it is unlike previous ones
  • There is no full information of who the customers are, where they have been to and where they are now

 

SINGAPORE — The Government has quarantined 2,480 individuals who could potentially be part of a fast-growing Covid-19 cluster involving several karaoke lounges.  

These people are staff members of the KTV lounges, as well as some patrons of the lounges detected through SafeEntry and TraceTogether contact-tracing systems, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Friday (July 16). 

Addressing the media during a conference by the multi-ministry Covid-19 task force, he added that they will be tested several times while serving the quarantine and some have already tested positive for Covid-19. 

This is the first of four “rings” used to manage the KTV cluster, which had grown to 120 cases on Friday since the Ministry of Health (MOH) first announced the cluster on July 12. 

SECOND RING

The second ring involves encouraging any other patrons who have visited these KTV joints and interacted with the hostesses to come forward to get tested because the SafeEntry and TraceTogether data for these premises is “not likely to be comprehensive”, Mr Ong said. 

After issuing a call to people potentially linked to the cluster earlier on Tuesday, Mr Ong said in an update that 1,660 people have come forward to get tested so far at the regional screening centres and Public Health Preparedness Clinics — primary care clinics activated during public health emergencies — and 25 people have tested positive. 

On July 13, 160 people came forward to get tested and 17 were positive. The next day, 501 people got tested and eight were positive. 

On Thursday, 1,003 took the swab test and there were no positive cases. 

Those who have been negative, Mr Ong noted, are not out of the woods yet because the incubation period for the coronavirus is not over. 

However, he said that the risk surrounding this group of people in the second ring is contained.

“The worry now is who else that they come into contact with before they get themselves tested and are they infected? And this is the bigger worry, which is the secondary infection,” he said.

THIRD RING

Through TraceTogether data, the Government has picked up about 2,000 members of the public who came into contact with confirmed cases from the KTV cluster and they would have already received a short message service (SMS) message that contains a health risk warning. 

Those who received such an SMS are legally obligated to get themselves tested at designated testing centres and then self-isolate until their test results show that they are negative, Mr Ong said. 

“So what I want to clarify, in case they are worried, or their families are worried, is that these individuals, we are not saying they went to the KTV lounges, but you have come into contact with a confirmed case, could have been anywhere, and are picked up by our data,” he added. 

For those who tested negative, the Government will issue them an antigen rapid test kit to test themselves and monitor their own health for the next 14 days.

At the end of the 14-day period of isolation, they are legally required to go through another polymerase chain reaction test to verify their first negative test result. 

FOURTH RING

The final ring would involve sending a health risk alert to “several thousands of people, or maybe more than 10,000”, who went to the malls or other premises where these KTV lounges are located, Mr Ong said.

These people who get a health risk alert are not legally obligated to get tested, but they are strongly advised to monitor their health, minimise interactions and test themselves. 

Mr Ong said that the challenge of managing this cluster is that it is unlike others involving customers in a mall or for the recent outbreak at the Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre where the authorities knew who the tenants were and where they live. 

In those cases, the authorities can test everyone within a geographical area, he added.

“The problem with this cluster is that we don't have full information of who are the customers, where they have been to and where they are now. It's hard to gather them together and to mount a special operation.” 

He also said that the Government will decide how much to tighten safe management measures based on the capacity of hospitals, particularly how overstretched intensive care units (ICUs) may be. 

Singapore’s ICU capacity for Covid-19 patients is about 1,000 and there is now just one such patient in ICU. 

“If we see that the capacity is under pressure, we will need to tighten up,” Mr Ong said. 

“So if in the next few days, more people fall sick and (get admitted to) ICU, say, it’s 25 people, (then) in one week, it will be 50. One more week, 100. One more week, 200. One more week, about 500. Fifth week, 1,000. System collapses.

“Five weeks is what it takes. We cannot wait five weeks. By the third week, if we see the number go up, action has to be taken, quickly and rewind this back to Phase Two (heightened alert),” he said. 

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MOH Covid-19 coronavirus quarantine KTV karaoke

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