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SINGAPORE – 13 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed as of noon on Thursday (December 24), all of which were imported.
They were put on notice to stay home upon arrival in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MINSA) said.
There were no new community cases and none of the workers’ bedrooms.
Thursday’s new cases bring Singapore’s total to 58,495.
More details will be announced Thursday night.
The Health Ministry said Wednesday that a case of a new strain of coronavirus was detected here, which in Britain was reported to be potentially more contagious.
The patient is a 17-year-old Singaporean girl who had studied in Great Britain.
The Health Ministry said that with the B117 strain circulating in Britain, the National Public Health Laboratory is conducting viral genomic sequencing of confirmed Covid-19 cases that recently arrived from Europe.
A total of 31 imported cases from Europe that arrived in Singapore between November 17 and December 17 were confirmed to have Covid-19 infection this month. Among them, 12 were not infected with the B117 strain, and one patient, identified as Case 58,504, was found to carry the strain.
Five samples cannot be sequenced due to their low viral load, the Health Ministry said, adding that confirmation of the results of another 11 cases that are preliminarily positive for the B117 strain is awaited.
The last two cases have yet to be proven.
MINSA said there is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community.
“All the cases had been placed on a 14-day stay-at-home notice in dedicated or isolated facilities upon arrival in Singapore, and their close contacts had been quarantined before,” he added.
The Singaporean who was infected with the B117 strain had been studying in Britain since August. He returned to Singapore on December 6 and delivered a stay-at-home notice in a dedicated facility upon arrival.
She developed a fever the next day and was confirmed to have a Covid-19 infection on December 8, the Health Ministry said.
His case was included in the ministry’s case count the same day.
All of his close contacts were quarantined and tested negative at the end of their quarantine period, the ministry added.
“As she had been isolated when she arrived in Singapore, we were able to close this case so that there would be no further transmission of her,” he said.
As a precautionary measure to reduce the risk of the B117 strain spreading to Singapore, the multi-ministerial task force combating Covid-19 announced on Tuesday that as of 11:59 pm on Wednesday, all pass holders Long-term and short-term visitors with a travel history to Great Britain within the past 14 days will not be able to enter or transit through Singapore.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the multi-ministry task force, said after the announcement of the new travel restrictions: “The preliminary assessment is that (the new strain) is 70% more infectious, which is significant and therefore we believe it is prudent to detain all travelers arriving from the UK during this period until we can learn more about this new strain of the virus. “
Singaporeans and permanent residents returning from Britain are required to undergo a Covid-19 test upon arriving here at the beginning of their 14-day stay-at-home notice.
Meanwhile, 21 new cases of coronavirus were announced in Singapore on Wednesday, all of them imported.
They were all put on notice to stay home when they got here.
Among them, three were Singaporeans and five were permanent residents who returned from Canada, India and Great Britain.
Another nine were foreign domestic workers who came from Indonesia, India and Myanmar.
Two were holders of student passes who came from India, while the remaining two cases were holders of short-term visit passes who came here from India and Sweden.
No new community or worker dormitory cases were announced on Wednesday.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one of those cases in the last week, currently unrelated.
With 18 cases discharged on Wednesday, 58,307 patients have made a full recovery from the disease.
A total of 34 patients remained in hospital on Wednesday, none in intensive care, while 97 were 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 78 million people. More than 1.7 million people have died.
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