8 new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Singapore, all with no recent travel history to China, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Thursday (Feb 13).

Seven of the confirmed cases (Cases 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 57 and 58) are linked to the Grace Assembly of God.

One is a professor who works in NUS.

Case 53 is a 54 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. He is linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God.

This takes the total number of cases in Singapore to 58.

Of these, seven are in critical condition in intensive care, said the ministry.

15 cases have been discharged, the ministry added.

Patient 51

Patient 51 is a 48 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China and stays at Bishan Street 13. He is linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God.

The patient reported onset of symptoms on Feb. 4 and sought treatment at a general practitioner (GP) clinic on Feb. 5 and Feb. 10.

He went to NCID on Feb.11 , and subsequent test results confirmed he was infected with COVID-19 on the afternoon of Feb. 12.

He is currently warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Prior to his admission, he went to work at Grace Assembly of God (Tanglin) (355 Tanglin Road) and Grace Assembly of God (Bukit Batok) (1 Bukit Batok West Avenue 4).

Patient 52

Patient is a 37 year-old male Bangladesh national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder, and has no recent travel history to China.

He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID and is linked to the cluster at Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.

He reported onset of symptoms on Feb. 7. As he was identified as a close contact of Cases 42 and 47, he was transported by an ambulance to Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Feb. 11.

Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on 12 February afternoon.

Prior to hospital admission, he had gone to work at the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site, the same location where Cases 42 and 47 had worked. He reported that he had mostly stayed at his rental apartment at Campbell Lane since the onset of symptoms.

Patient 53

Patient 53 is a 54 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China, works at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and is linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God.

He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

He reported onset of symptoms on Feb. 10, and went to NCID on Feb. 12 where he was immediately isolated. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on the afternoon of Feb. 12.

Prior to hospital admission, he reported that he had mostly stayed at home at Hillview Avenue.

He had also not interacted with colleagues and students after onset of symptoms.

Patients 54-58

Patients 54 (54 year-old female Singapore Citizen), 57 (26 year-old male Singapore Citizen) and 58 (55 year-old male Singapore Citizen) are linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God.

All three cases did not have recent travel history to China.

They were confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on the morning of Feb. 13, and are currently warded in separate isolation rooms at NCID.

Patient 55 is a 30 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China.

He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on the morning of Feb. 13, and is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. He is a family member of Case 50.

Patient 56 is a 30 year-old male Bangladesh national with no recent travel history to China.

He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on the morning of Feb. 13, and is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

He is linked to the cluster at the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.

MOH has initiated epidemiological investigations and contact tracing to identify individuals who had close contact with the cases.

Other updates:

Patient 50 (Announced on Feb. 12)

Patient 50 is a 62 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

He reported onset of symptoms on Feb. 7 and had sought treatment at two GP clinics on Feb. 7, Feb. 10 and Feb. 11.

He was admitted to NCID on Feb. 11 and was immediately isolated. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on the morning of Feb. 12.

Prior to hospital admission, other than going to work at DBS Asia Central at Marina Bay Financial Centre (12 Marina Boulevard), he had stayed at his home at Mei Hwan Drive, except to seek medical treatment.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

Thus far, a total of 15 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospital.

Of the 43 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving.

Seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Update on suspect cases

As of Feb. 13, 2020, 12pm, 711 of the suspect cases have tested negative for COVID-19, and 58 have tested positive.

Test results for the remaining 82 cases are pending.

Update on contact tracing for confirmed cases

Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing.

As of Feb. 13, 12pm, MOH has identified 1,278 close contacts.

Of the 1,161 who are still in Singapore, 1,144 have been contacted and are being quarantined or isolated. Efforts are ongoing to contact the remaining 17 close contacts.

Once identified, MOH has stated that it will closely monitor all close contacts.

As a precautionary measure, they will be quarantined for 14 days from their last exposure to the patient.

Additionally, all other identified contacts who have a low risk of being infected will be under active surveillance, and will be contacted daily to monitor their health status.

First 50 cases

On February 12, 2020, there were three new cases, which brought the then total to 50.

Patient 50 worked at DBS at the MBFC Tower 3. While the other two both work at the Tanglin and Bukit Batok branches of the Grace Assembly of God Church

Before today's report there had been 15 discharged patients, six from February 12 alone.

Here's a review of the first 50 cases in Singapore.

Jump in cases in China

Mainland China’s novel coronavirus death toll hit 1,310 at the end of Wednesday, Feb. 12, after the hardest-hit province of Hubei reported a record 242 new fatalities, the country’s National Health Commission.

Hubei also saw 14,840 new confirmed infections, by far its biggest one-day tally since the crisis erupted.

Health officials said the sharp rise in confirmed cases is the result of the adoption of new methodology for diagnosis.

The huge spike raised the death toll to 1,355.

The total number of nationwide infections has hit nearly 60,000.

Top image from NUS Facebook