Covid-19: 21 new cases in the community, including one S'porean who works at A*STAR

Back to double-digit community cases.

Chandel Tan | July 09, 2020, 11:48 PM

The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 125 new cases of Covid-19 infection on Thursday, July 9.

This brings the total number of cases to 45,422.

New cases

The vast majority of the new cases continue to be Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.

There are 21 cases in the community, of whom three are Singaporeans and one is a Permanent Resident.

Three cases are Work Pass holders and 14 are Work Permit Holders.

Of the 21 cases in the community, 11 were picked up as a result of proactive surveillance and screening, and five had already been placed on quarantine earlier.

15 of the cases are asymptomatic, and were all detected through proactive testing.

10 of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters.

11 of the community cases are currently unlinked.

Of these, six cases were detected from our proactive testing. Four of them (Cases 45360, 45364, 45365 and 45422) were tested as they work in essential services, even though they are asymptomatic. The other two cases (Cases 45356 and 45363) were swabbed as part of our efforts to screen individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations.

Of the remaining cases, four (Cases 45345, 45347, 45354 and 45373) were swabbed under enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor. This allows MOH to detect infected individuals early and to quickly contain further spread.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for these cases, as well as the remaining case (Case 45379).

One imported case

There is an imported case today involving a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned to Singapore from India on June 23.

She had been placed on 14-day Stay Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving SHN.

Increase in new cases in the community

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of nine cases per day in the week before, to an average of 16 per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased, from an average of four cases per day in the week before, to an average of eight per day in the past week.

Update on Block 111 Tampines Street 11

MOH announced on July 2 that it had placed 58 households residing at Block 111 Tampines Street 11 under active phone surveillance, and was facilitating Covid-19 testing for them and their visitors.

This was a precautionary measure after MOH had detected nine confirmed cases from two households residing at the block.

All infected individuals from these two households have been isolated earlier and are recovering in hospitals or community care facilities.

In total, 123 residents and visitors have been tested so far, and all the results have come back negative for Covid-19.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing, but thus far there is no evidence of spread beyond the two households. MOH will continue to closely monitor the situation.

One passed away, 197 remain in hospitals

There is one reported death today, involving Case 43688, a 38-year-old male Bangladeshi national, who passed away on July 7.

He was preliminarily diagnosed to have died from cardiorespiratory failure, pending further investigations by the Coroner.

There are currently 197 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

3,554 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

26 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

In all, 322 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community facilities, bringing the total number of people who have recovered from the virus to 41,645.

Top photo via National University Health System - NUHS / Facebook.