S'porean who returned from UK likely to be shedding 'minute fragments' of Covid-19 RNA, no longer infectious

All of the cases reported on Dec. 25 are imported.

Syahindah Ishak | December 26, 2020, 12:19 AM

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 14 new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore on Friday (Dec. 25).

This brings the total number of cases to 58,509.

All of the cases on Dec. 25 are imported and had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.

Breakdown of cases

Amongst the 14 cases, 12 are asymptomatic.

Here's a breakdown of the cases:

Six of the cases are Singaporeans and two are Singapore Permanent Residents (PRs) who returned from South Africa, Republic of Korea, UK, US, Philippines, Malaysia and India.

In addition, there is one Work Pass holder and three Work Permit holders who arrived from Indonesia and India.

The two remaining cases are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India and US.

MOH has given additional info for two of the cases:

Case 58741

Case 58741, a 21-year-old Singaporean man, arrived from the UK on Dec. 7 and served 14-day SHN at a dedicated facility until Dec. 21.

He was swabbed on Dec. 17, and his test result was negative.

He subsequently developed a cough on Dec. 23, and was tested positive at a hospital on the same day.

His original sample was tested by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), and was confirmed to be positive for Covid-19 infection.

However, a second sample taken on Dec. 24 by NPHL came back negative for the virus.

His serological test result has come back positive, which indicates a likely past infection.

He is therefore likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

Case 58746

Case 58746, a 47-year-old PR arrived from the Philippines on Dec. 10, and served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore.

He was moved to another dedicated facility on Dec. 20 when MOH commenced investigations into the 13 previously reported cases who had served SHN at Mandarin Orchard Singapore between Oct. 22 and Nov. 11.

He was swabbed on Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 and his test results came back negative.

As a precautionary measure, he was swabbed again on completion of SHN on Dec. 24, and went home following the test.

His test result came back positive that night and he was conveyed to the hospital the next day.

Investigations are ongoing to assess if he could be linked to the 13 cases. His serological test result is pending.

20 more cases discharged

20 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

In all, 58,352 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 31 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none are in the intensive care unit. 97 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

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

No new locations

MOH regular updates a list of public places visited by confirmed Covid-19 cases for more than 30 minutes when they were infectious.

No new locations were added to the list on Dec. 25.

Here's the complete list of locations visited by cases in the community during their infectious period:

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Top image by Joshua Lee.