Covid-19: Domestic worker sole case in community; 17 other imported infections

• The sole community case on April 3 was a foreign domestic worker with no known links to confirmed infections
• She did not show symptoms, but was tested on April 1 as she was a close contact of a confirmed case
• There were 17 other imported Covid-19 infections

SINGAPORE — The sole Covid-19 patient in the community on Saturday (April 3) was a 24-year-old foreign domestic worker with no known links to confirmed cases.  

The domestic helper arrived from Myanmar on Jan 30 and served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until Feb 13, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its evening update on the coronavirus situation.

She tested negative for Covid-19 on Feb 12 while being quarantined.

After her isolation period, she moved into a boarding house for domestic workers as she awaited deployment to an employer. She did not leave the boarding house from Feb 13 to March 9, when she started work at her employer’s residence.

She did not show symptoms of the virus, but was tested on April 1 as she was a close contact of a confirmed case, who is also a domestic worker from Myanmar.

That worker, 26, was at the same boarding house from Feb 6 to March 23 while waiting to be dispatched to an employer. She developed symptoms on March 23 and tested positive for Covid-19 on March 25.

The latest community case tested positive for the virus on Friday and was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

Her serological test, which detects antibodies in blood samples, came back positive. The presence of antibodies indicates if a person had been infected with Covid-19.

MOH said: “She could be shedding minute fragments of the virus ribonucleic acid from a past infection but, given that we are not able to definitively conclude that she had been infected before her arrival in Singapore, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure.

“Epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine if the two cases are linked.”

All the identified close contacts of the case, including her household members, have been quarantined, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.

On the whole, MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at two a week in the past fortnight. The number of cases with no known links in the community has also remained stable at two per week in the last two weeks.

IMPORTED CASES

Apart from the community case, there were 17 imported virus cases on Saturday, all of which were isolated and tested while in quarantine.

They are:

• Three Singapore permanent residents (PRs) who returned from Brazil, India and Ivory Coast

• Two student's pass holders who arrived from India and the United Arab Emirates

• Four work-pass holders who arrived from India

• Seven work-permit holders who came from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines — two of whom are domestic workers

• A short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Myanmar to visit his family member who is a Singapore PR

REMAINING CASES

Since the start of the pandemic, Singapore has confirmed 60,468 coronavirus infections.

Of these, 60,185 have recovered and been discharged, including nine on Saturday.

Forty-one patients are still hospitalised. Most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition under intensive care.

Another 212 are being cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus.

Singapore has recorded 30 deaths from complications due to Covid-19.