The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 24 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday (Jan. 16).

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 59,083.

There are five cases of locally-transmitted and 19 imported cases of Covid-19 infection.

Four community cases

There are four cases in the community, comprising two who are currently unlinked, and two who are linked to previous cases.

Case 59340: Unlinked

Case 59340 is a 39-year-old male Singaporean who works at Singapore Scouts Association in Bishan, handling mainly administrative work in the office.

He is also a part-time bus driver with Westpoint Transit who plies specific routes for Cameron (Singapore) Pte Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline Tuas.

He developed a fever on Jan. 11 and sought medical treatment from a general practitioner via tele-consultation, and again at a polyclinic on Jan. 13 where he was tested for Covid-19 as part of MOH's enhanced community testing for those with acute respiratory infection.

He was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on Jan. 15 and was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

His serological test result came back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection. He had not gone to work after onset of symptoms.

Case 59351: Linked

Case 59351 is a 39-year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of Case 59340.

She developed acute respiratory infection symptoms on Jan. 13 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic the next day.

She was referred to a polyclinic to take a Covid-19 test on the same day.

Her test came back positive for Covid-19 on Jan. 15 and she was conveyed in an ambulance to NCID.

Her serological test result is pending.

She works as an administrative officer at OCBC Tampines Centre One but does not interact with customers.

Her last day at work was on Jan. 8, before onset of symptoms.

Case 59343: Unlinked

Case 59343 is a 33-year-old male Chinese national who is a Work Permit holder.

He works as a food processing worker at Golden Bridge Foods Manufacturing Pte Ltd.

He developed a cough on Jan. 7 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic.

He was swabbed but his test result came back negative for Covid-19 on Jan. 8.

He stayed at home on medical leave between Jan. 7 and 12, and went back to work on Jan. 13.

However, he developed a fever on Jan. 14 and sought treatment at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where he was tested for Covid-19 again.

This time, his result came back positive on Jan. 15 and he was conveyed in an ambulance to NCID.

His serological test result came back negative, indicating that this is like a current infection.

Case 59347: Linked

Case 59347 is a 28-year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of Case 59280.

Case 59280 was confirmed to have Covid-19 on Jan. 13.

She had been identified as his close contact earlier and was placed on quarantine on Jan. 13.

She developed acute respiratory infection symptoms on Jan. 14 and was tested for Covid-19.

She was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on Jan. 15 and was conveyed to NCID in an ambulance.

Her serological test came back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

She works as a Prison Staff Officer at Singapore Prison Service but does not interact with prison inmates.

Due to workplace safe management measures, she has mainly been working from home during this period.

One case residing in dormitory

There is one case residing in a dormitory who is currently unlinked.

Case 59350 is a 37-year-old male Indian national who is a Work Permit holder.

He resides at Tuas South Dormitory and works at Chevron Oronite Pte Ltd as a thermal insulator installer.

He is asymptomatic and was detected when his test was taken on Jan. 14 as part of the Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) came back positive for Covid-19 infection.

His earlier tests from RRT — the last being on Dec. 17 — were negative for Covid-19 infection.

His serological test result came back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

Epidemiological investigations for the above cases are ongoing.

In the meantime, all identified close contacts of the cases, including their family and household members and co-workers have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that MOH can detect asymptomatic cases.

MOH will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the cases could have been infected by them.

19 imported cases

There are 19 imported cases, all of whom had been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.

Here's a breakdown of the cases:

• One (Case 59339) is a Singapore Permanent Resident who returned from India.
• Three (Cases 59329, 59331 and 59332) are Dependant's Pass holders who arrived from the UAE and India.
• Two (Cases 59327 and 59330) are Student's Pass holders who arrived from India and France.
• Five (Cases 59328, 59337, 59341, 59342 and 59348) are Work Pass holders who arrived from India, Japan, Spain and the UAE.
• Six are Work Permit holders who arrived from India and Myanmar, of whom three (Cases 59333, 59335 and 59336) are foreign domestic workers.
• One (Case 59346) is a sea crew holding a Special Pass who arrived from Brunei onboard a vessel on Jan. 5 and had not disembarked. He was tested for Covid-19 and conveyed to the hospital when his result came back positive.
• One (Case 59345) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Myanmar for a job placement.

They had all already been placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or during isolation.

Cases 59348 and 59349 are Work Permit holders who arrived from India on Dec. 25, 2020 and served SHN at dedicated facilities until Jan. 8, 2021.

Their swabs done on Jan. 5 during SHN were negative for Covid-19, and subsequent tests on Jan. 9 and 11 were also negative.

Their tests on Jan. 14 came back positive for Covid-19 infection, although the Ct values were very high, which are indicative of low viral loads.

Their serological test results have also come back positive. Given that these indicate likely past infection, MOH classified these cases as imported.

They are likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others, MOH said.

13 more cases discharged

13 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,784 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 54 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit.

216 are isolated and cared for in community facilities.

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

Four new locations

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

Four new locations were added to the list on Jan. 16, including Ya Kun Kaya Toast at Canberra Plaza and a Sheng Siong outlet at Teck Whye Lane.

Here is the full list of locations:

In a release from MOH, the ministry said that the recent locally-transmitted cases are a stark reminder that we cannot afford to let our guard down.

"We must continue to keep up our discipline in adhering to the safe management and safe distancing measures, so as to avoid an uncontrolled resurgence of cases that may necessitate a tightening of measures."

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