Sole community case reported on March 31 is S'pore Permanent Resident studying in UK

More recoveries and discharges.

Sulaiman Daud | March 31, 2021, 11:34 PM

Earlier on March 31, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 34 new cases of Covid-19 infection, including one community case.

Here are the details about the community case.

Singapore PR studying in the UK

The case is a 22-year-old Singapore Permanent Resident who is studying in the UK.

He returned to Singapore from the UK on Jan. 11. He served a Stay-Home Notice (SHN) until Jan. 25 at a dedicated facility.

After that, he served an additional period of seven days in isolation at his residence, which takes us to Feb. 1.

His two tests taken during SHN and self-isolation were both negative. He was asymptomatic, but detected when he took a Covid-19 pre-departure test on March 30 in preparation for his return to the UK.

His test result came back positive on the same day, and he was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and his serology test result came back positive. Another test conducted on March 31 was negative for Covid-19 infection.

He could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

Given that MOH cannot definitively conclude when he had been infected, MOH will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure.

33 imported cases

All the 33 imported cases were placed on SHN or isolated upon arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving SHN or during isolation.

They include a Singapore Permanent Resident, a Dependant's Pass Holder, two Student's Pass Holders, two Work Pass Holders, 22 Work Permit Holders, two Short-Term Visit Pass Holders and three Special Pass Holders.

They came from countries like India, Myanmar, Qatar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

More recoveries

11 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

In all, 60,149 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

37 confirmed cases are still in hospital, with most stable or improving, and one in the intensive care unit.

165 with mild symptoms or are clinically well but test positive are isolated in community care facilities.

MOH maintains a list of places visited by Covid-19 cases during their infectious period, and there were no new additions to the list reported on March 31.

Top image by Zhangxin Zheng.