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SINGAPORE: Nineteen new COVID-19 cases were reported in Singapore as of noon on Sunday (December 20), the Ministry of Health (MINSA) said in its daily preliminary update.
No new cases were found in the community or in the dormitories of foreign workers.
The 19 cases were imported and all were placed on notice of admission or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Three of the imported cases were people serving a stay-at-home notice at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel, of which 13 cases from November are being investigated after they were found to have “high genetic similarity” despite coming from different countries.
Details of the new cases will be released Sunday evening, the Health Ministry said.
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The Singapore Ministry of Health and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Saturday that the previous 13 cases were “likely infected from a similar source” and that they cannot exclude that the transmissions may have occurred at the Mandarin Orchard hotel.
On Sunday, the Health Ministry said 394 people meeting the stay-at-home notice had been sampled at the hotel and 384 test results were ready, while 10 are pending. Of the results that are ready, 381 have tested negative for COVID-19 infection. All three positive cases were sent to the hospital immediately.
As a precautionary measure, the hotel will stop accepting new guests with immediate effect and all current guests will be removed. Those who are currently complying with their stay-at-home notice will also be moved to another dedicated facility.
Singapore has reported a total of 58,422 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday.
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