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Three employees of the Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel are likely to have been previously infected with the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.
Covid-19 tests were conducted on hotel staff as a precautionary measure, as 13 travelers who stayed there were suspected of being infected.
Epidemiological investigations of these cases are ongoing.
Three other people who met their stay-at-home notice (SHN) at Mandarin Orchard have now tested positive for Covid-19. But these are likely imported cases and not linked to the 13.
The investigation of the 13 cases began when it was discovered that they had been infected by strains of coronavirus with “high genetic similarity”, implying that the infections may have come from the same source, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday.
All 13 had flown from 10 countries, but they all stayed in the same Mandarin Orchard tower between October 22 and November 11.
In a press release yesterday, the Health Ministry said 394 people serving SHN at the hotel were sampled and 384 test results are ready, while 10 are pending. Of these results, 381 have been negative for Covid-19.
The guests were tested following the news of the possible transmission chain at the hotel. The test is usually done towards the end of the SHN.
While the three new cases announced yesterday are likely to be imported, the National Public Health Laboratory will carry out a whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis to determine if they could be linked to the 13 cases under investigation, the Health Ministry said. .
So far, polymerase chain reaction tests for 158 employees at Mandarin Orchard Singapore have been negative for Covid-19. Approximately 500 hotel employees will be screened.
The hotel stopped accepting new guests from Saturday and is progressively reviewing existing guests, the Health Ministry said.
Guests attending SHN at the hotel have been taken in special vehicles to alternative SHN facilities.
ST understands that some SHN guests were transferred to Swissotel The Stamford.
A 64-year-old Briton and his 59-year-old Singaporean wife are among the 13 cases under investigation. They returned to Singapore to visit his wife’s family and arrived on October 26.
After his wife tested positive for Covid-19 on November 6, he was transferred to another hotel and he, too, tested positive on November 8, after developing symptoms.
The couple were discharged from a community care center late last month after their recovery and are still in Singapore.
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