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SINGAPORE – 10 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed as of noon on Monday (December 21), bringing Singapore’s total to 58,432.
There was one community case and no case of workers’ dormitories, said the Ministry of Health (MINSA).
This is the first reported community case since December 5.
The last confirmed community case was a Filipino crew member who had already been identified as a close contact for another Covid-19 patient and was already in quarantine.
There were also nine imported cases, which had been placed on a stay-at-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.
The Health Ministry also reported on its investigations into the 13 cases of coronavirus at the Mandarin Orchard hotel last month that may have been infected after their arrival here.
The ministry said the serological tests of eight other staff members came back positive, indicating probable past Covid-19 infections. This is in addition to the three cases announced on Sunday.
Epidemiological investigations of these 11 cases are ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said it is testing its identified close contacts as a precautionary measure, and will also conduct serological tests to determine if these people could have been infected by them.
In all, 570 hotel employees have undergone polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are used to diagnose current or new infections, all of which were negative. The Health Ministry said it is facilitating testing for a remaining individual who has not yet had the PCR test.
More details will be announced Monday night.
On Sunday, the 19 new confirmed coronavirus cases were imported.
There were no new community cases and none of the foreign worker dormitories.
All the new cases were among those that had already received a stay-at-home notice or were isolated upon arrival in Singapore when they were assessed, the ministry said.
Among them are two Singaporeans and three permanent residents (PRs) who returned from Great Britain and India.
There is a holder of a work pass and a holder of a work permit who work here and came from Russia and Indonesia respectively.
There were also three long-term visit pass holders who came from India and one dependent pass holder who came from Great Britain.
Four other cases were in short-term visiting passes.
Of these, one was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment. The patient was accompanied by his caregiver who also tested positive. The remaining two are visiting relatives here who are Singaporean or PR.
The last four of the 19 cases are members of the crew of a ship that arrived from Indonesia. They had remained on the ship until they were taken to a quarantine facility, as they had been identified as close contacts from a previous case.
Only one of the 19 new cases was symptomatic. The Health Ministry said epidemiological investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, all identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and quarantined.
Tests will be carried out at the beginning and end of their quarantine period so that asymptomatic cases can be detected, the ministry added.
Serological tests will also be performed for close contacts to determine whether the cases could have been infected by them, the Health Ministry said.
The ministry added that the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with no new cases in the last week.
With five cases discharged on Sunday, 58,264 patients have recovered from the disease.
There are 43 patients still in the hospital, none in intensive care, and 71 patients are recovering in community facilities.
Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died from other causes.
Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 74.2 million people. More than 1.6 million people have died.
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