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SINGAPORE: A 20-year-old Singaporean working at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport is on Friday (January 8) the second reported local case of COVID-19 that has tested a preliminary positive for the new strain B117.
He is also the third person working at the hotel’s Azur restaurant to test positive for coronavirus in the past week.
The man, known as Case 59084, delivered packaged meals to aircrew members and hotel guests, the same tasks performed by the other two cases linked to the restaurant. The Ministry of Health (MOH) said it did not interact with diners at the restaurant.
READ: Singapore reports 23 new COVID-19 cases, including 2 in the community
Routine tests previously listed by the Singaporean, the latest on January 1, had come back negative for the coronavirus.
He was identified as a close contact for Case 59028, a 24-year-old man from South Korea who was the first reported local case with the B117 strain, and was quarantined on January 5.
The man developed symptoms of an acute respiratory infection on January 7 and was cleaned. His test came back positive for COVID-19 infection, and he was taken to the National Center for Infectious Diseases in an ambulance, the ministry said.
His serological test result was negative, indicating that it is likely a current infection, the Health Ministry said.
The ministry added that case 59084 has “preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain and is pending further confirmation tests.”
The Health Ministry previously said on December 23 that “there is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community.”
Epidemiological investigations are ongoing.
All close contacts identified from Case 59084, including family members and co-workers, have been isolated and quarantined. Tests will be performed at the beginning and end of their quarantine period to detect asymptomatic cases, the Health Ministry said.
Serological tests will also be performed for close contacts to determine if the case could have been infected by them.
CASE INVESTIGATIONS
The ministry said it has started “special trial operations” to test 234 staff members working at the hotel.
So far, 233 people have been sampled and 129 have tested negative for COVID-19 infection.
“104 test results are pending. We are facilitating testing for the remaining staff,” the Health Ministry said.
READ: Crowne Plaza Changi Airport hotel to close for 14 days while Ministry of Health investigates unrelated COVID-19 cases
The Health Ministry announced Thursday that the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport hotel will be closed for two weeks from January 8 as a “precautionary measure.”
The hotel restaurant and event spaces will also be closed. During the closure, a deep cleaning and disinfection will be carried out.
“From our preliminary investigations, we cannot exclude that the transmissions could have occurred at the hotel,” the Health Ministry said.
Strain B117
On December 24, the Health Ministry said that a 17-year-old woman who had been studying in the UK since August had returned to Singapore on December 6 and tested positive for the B117 strain.
A Singapore Airlines pilot also preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain, the Health Ministry said on Dec. 30.
Eleven others have also preliminarily tested positive for the same strain.
A total of 15 people have preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain in Singapore.
THREE COVID-19 CLUSTERS IN SINGAPORE
There are now three clusters of COVID-19 in Singapore, including one involving the NewOcean 6 tanker which has nine cases.
There is a family group that involves a 55-year-old port pilot whose infection was detected through routine roster testing in the construction, marine and process sectors on December 28.
Three of her family members were later confirmed to have COVID-19: a 79-year-old woman, a 50-year-old man, and a 52-year-old woman who initially did not get tested for coronavirus despite advice from a doctor to do it.
The third group of four cases involved two students from Raffles Girls’ School (RGS). The first student is a family member of a marine surveyor at Lloyd’s Register Singapore who tested positive for COVID-19 on December 29.
The girl was confirmed to have the coronavirus on December 31, along with a 46-year-old woman in the same household.
The second RGS student tested positive on December 31, after visiting the first girl at her home for a few hours on December 27 when the marine surveyor was present.
A total of 23 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Singapore on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 58,836.
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