SIA cabin crew & 4 passengers test positive for Covid-19 B117 strain after UAE flight

Singapore recorded 11 cases of Covid-19 on Feb. 9.

Andrew Koay | February 09, 2021, 10:41 PM

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The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed an additional 11 cases of Covid-19 in Singapore on Tuesday (Feb. 9).

This brings the total number of cases to 59,723.

All 11 cases were imported cases.

SIA cabin crew member tests positive

Case 60102 is a 41-year-old Singaporean cabin crew member with Singapore Airlines.

She had just returned to Singapore on Feb. 1 after a turnaround flight to the United Arab Emirates where she did not disembark from the aircraft.

On Feb. 4, she lost a sense of smell but did not seek medical attention. Her Covid-19 infection was eventually detected when she was tested on Feb. 7 as part of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore’s requirement for air crew to be tested following their return from overseas.

Her pooled test result came back positive for Covid-19 the next day, and she was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases for an individual swab, and isolated.

Case 60102's test result came back positive for Covid-19 infection on Feb. 9.

She had previously tested negative for the virus on Jan. 22, and her serology test results indicate that her infection is likely to be current.

She has also tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain, and is pending further confirmatory tests.

The cabin crew member had already received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 2.

However, as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination, it was still possible for her to be infected.

As the vaccine does not contain live virus, she could not have been infected due to vaccination.

Case 60102 is the fifth case to have emerged from the flight, with four passengers (Cases 59885, 59893, 59901, and 59902) also infected.

In view of her recent travel history, and the possibility that she might have been infected onboard the flight, MOH has preliminarily classified this case as imported.

10 imported cases placed on SHN

The other imported cases were all placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving SHN.

They included one Singaporean, student pass holders, short-term visit pass holders, work permit holders, and dependent's pass holder arriving from the UAE, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Russia.

Among these imported cases, Case 60088 arrived from Bangladesh on a short-term visit pass as a caregiver to her spouse who was already receiving medical care in Singapore.

Three of the cases (Cases 60095, 60097, and 60098) arrived in Singapore to work as foreign domestic workers.

Here is a breakdown of all the imported cases reported on Feb. 9:

22 cases discharged

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

In all, 59,506 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 40 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.

157 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. 29 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

Two 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.

There are two new locations reported today:

  • Oasis Terraces (681 Punggol Drive) on Feb. 3
  • Ci Yuan Community Club (51 Hougang Avenue 9) on Feb. 7

Here's the full list of locations:

Those who had been identified as close contacts of confirmed cases would already have been notified by MOH.

As a precautionary measure, persons who had been at these locations during the specified timings should monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit.

They should see a doctor promptly if they develop symptoms of acute respiratory infection (such as cough, sore throat and runny nose), as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history.

Top image by Troy Mortier via Unsplash

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