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SINGAPORE – 10 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Saturday (Dec 26), including a Lebanese citizen who was found to be infected with Covid-19 after completing part of his stay-at-home notice (SHN) at the Mandarin Orchard hotel. Singapore.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said he was moved to another dedicated facility last Sunday when the ministry began investigations of 13 Covid-19 cases that had treated his SHN at the hotel.
The 13 cases, which came from 10 different countries, were infected by coronavirus strains with “high genetic similarity,” implying that the infections could have come from a single source and could have occurred in the hotel.
The 37-year-old Lebanese likely contracted Covid-19 after arriving in Singapore, according to facts exposed by the Health Ministry. He had flown here from Qatar.
The short-term visitation pass holder was screened for Covid-19 on December 19 and 21 and the test results were negative.
His swab on December 24, at the end of his SHN, came back positive, while his serological test result was negative. The last test determines if your infection was old.
“Investigations are ongoing to assess whether it could be linked to the 13 cases,” the Health Ministry said.
The 10 cases announced by the Health Ministry on Saturday were imported.
The new cases, of which none are from the community or workers’ dormitories, bring Singapore’s total to 58,519.
All of them had been placed in SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. All were asymptomatic.
Two of the new cases are Singaporeans who had returned from the UK.
Five are Indian citizens, including one holder of a work permit, three holders of a dependent pass and one holder of a short-term visit pass. They had come from their country of origin.
The remaining two cases are a Bangladeshi work permit holder and a Malaysian short-term visit pass holder. They came from Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively.
The Health Ministry said the Malaysian is the caregiver for a person who was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment.
He added that epidemiological investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, close contacts of the cases have been isolated, quarantined and will be assessed at the beginning and end of their quarantine period.
The Ministry of Health will also conduct serological tests for close contacts to determine whether the cases could have been infected by them.
Four shopping malls – Anchorpoint Shopping Center, Westgate, Raffles City Shopping Center and CityLink – are among the places visited by Covid-19 patients when they were infectious, the ministry added.
The other locations were Prime Supermarket at Block 962 Jurong West Street 91 and NTUC FairPrice at Clementi Avenue 3.
He said that close contacts would have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places.
As a precautionary measure, people who were in those places at the same time should monitor their health closely for 14 days from the date of their visit and consult a doctor if they feel ill, he added.
People can check their TraceTogether or SingPass Mobile app, or go to this website to check if they were in these places at the same time as the Covid-19 patients.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one of those cases in the last week not currently linked, the ministry said.
With 10 cases discharged on Saturday, 58,347 patients have fully recovered from the disease.
A total of 37 patients remained in the hospital, none in intensive care, while 91 were still 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 79.9 million people and 1.75 million people have died.
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