Jurong West Secondary student 'mistakenly diagnosed' with Covid-19, TTSH apologises

As such, there is no second confirmed case or student-to-student transmission in the school.

Nyi Nyi Thet | July 14, 2020, 02:58 PM

The Ministry of Health clarified that the second Covid-19 case from Jurong West Secondary, announced on July 10, was mistakenly diagnosed as positive due to an error by the laboratory.

While in hospital, the student was isolated and had not come into contact with any other Covid-19 patients.

Further testing of the correct sample and new swab samples from the student had yielded negative results for Covid-19.

As such, there is no second confirmed case or student-to-student transmission in the school.

All 71 students and staff who were the close contacts of the first case have tested negative. They will continue to serve their Home Quarantine Order as issued by MOH before returning to school.

As there are a number of teachers from the school serving HQO, the HBL period for Secondary 1 students will continue till July 17 so that students can continue to be taught by their own teachers.

Classes for all other levels will continue in school as per normal.

Schools have implemented comprehensive safe management measures to ensure the safety of students and staff, and minimise the risk of transmission.

This includes spaced-out seating in classrooms to ensure safe distancing, the wearing of face masks, staggered arrival, dismissal and recess timings and minimising intermingling across classes and levels.

Students should also head directly home after school.

Tan Tock Seng Hospital also apologised for their oversight.

"We have since informed both patients of the mislabelling incident and apologised for the anxiety caused. The student is otherwise well and has been discharged. The other patient, who was in isolation, has since been admitted to NCID and remains stable.

We are sorry for the mistake and sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our patients and her school. We have audited our laboratory testing for COVID-19 for that period and no other mislabelling was discovered. We have also put in place additional checks to prevent such an incident from occurring again."

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